Cases of whooping cough are more than three times higher this year than at the same time last year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
So far this year, there have been 10,865 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, compared to 2,918 recorded during the same period in 2023, CDC data shows.
The number of cases is closer to the 8,271 cases of whooping cough recorded in 2019, indicating a return to pre-pandemic levels.
Doctors say reported cases of whooping cough are lower than usual in the past few years, possibly due to COVID-19 mitigation measures including masking, remote learning and social distancing.
“During the pandemic itself, we really had a low point for pertussis transmission, and that’s just because of all the social distancing and isolation,” Dr. Mike Patrick, an emergency room physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, told ABC News. “If children are not around, and also adults, then they cannot catch the disease, because it is an infectious disease and it is transmitted from one person to another.”
“So, I think, we’re just going back because people are going back to doing the normal things that we’re doing, and that’s just the pattern that we’re seeing with the vaccine that we have. But I would say, without the vaccine, we’re going to see more many pertussis out of 10,000 cases,” he said.
Cases of Whooping Cough in the United States
CDC
Dr. Lori Handy, an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the post-pandemic increase in whooping cough cases is similar to what has been seen in the US with other diseases as mitigation measures begin to wear off.
“Honestly, I was surprised that it took so long, knowing that we took (many) steps close to two years ago,” he told ABC News. “I think a lot of people remember the rise in RSV cases that we saw in 2022, so this has lagged some of the other respiratory infections, but now it’s re-emerging and it looks very typical in 2019.”
Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a type of bacteria called Bordetella pertussis.
These bacteria attach to the cilia – tiny hair-like structures found on the surface of some cells – of the upper respiratory system that help clear mucus and other debris from the airways, and release toxins. The toxin damages the cilia and causes the upper airways to swell, according to the CDC.
“You get airway swelling and a horrible cough because the cilia don’t work, so your body has to cough to try to keep it from coming out of the lungs and bringing stuff in,” Patrick said. “Sometimes, the baby will have difficulty breathing. He has a cough … then he takes a big, deep breath, because he doesn’t breathe during the cough, so it’s called whooping cough, because that’s (the sound) when he’s coughing.”
Whooping cough is spread from person to person through coughing and sneezing. An infected person can be contagious for weeks without knowing they have whooping cough.
Early symptoms are often similar to the common cold – runny nose, cough and low-grade fever – and usually last one to two weeks. However, symptoms can develop into a rapid and severe cough that can last up to 12 weeks.
Whooping cough can being treated with antibiotics and receiving early treatment can reduce the severity of the infection. Most whooping cough symptoms can be treated at home, according to the CDC.
Although anyone can get pertussis, babies under one year old, pregnant women and immunocompromised people are at the highest risk for severe disease.
“In younger children, and especially in infants, they can have apnea, so they stop breathing. They can be hospitalized in the intensive care unit, and unfortunately, children can and have died from pertussis,” Dr. Robert Frenck , professor. of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio, told ABC News. “So, this is not an innocuous infection. They can be very serious, and can kill.”
A vaccine for whooping cough exists introduced in the late 1940s and the number of cases each year began to drop dramatically, down more than 90% compared to the pre-vaccine era.
Conceptual biomedical illustration of Bordetella pertussis bacteria seen in undated stock photo.
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images
Before the vaccine, there were about 200,000 cases each year among children and up to 9,000 children died, according to the CDC.
There are two types of vaccines currently used to protect against whooping cough: the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine for infants and young children under 7 and the tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine for older children, adults and women pregnant. .
A new report from the CDC found that exemptions for routine childhood vaccinations among children in kindergarten during the 2022-23 school year are at an all-time high, including for the DTaP vaccine. Frenck said the increase in whooping cough cases is a reminder that the vaccine is effective, but said he doesn’t stop vaccine skeptics from asking questions.
“Parents want to do what’s best for their children, so they want to keep their children healthy,” he said. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about vaccines where people get confused. So, my recommendation is to talk to your healthcare provider, ask your questions, get answers, feel good about having your children vaccinated. Vaccines are well tested, vaccines are safe, vaccines protective.”
Handy said he also encourages everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated and health care providers to be on the lookout for pertussis cases.
“For health care providers … find out this is back, like five years ago, and the only way to detect it is to try and use public health measures to prevent the spread,” he said.
