Whooping cough cases soar as vaccine rates drop among kids
In states that provided data dating back to 2019, more than 75% of counties and jurisdictions showed declining DTaP vaccination rates. In Texas, about 85% of counties saw a decline.
The decline comes as several states report a significant increase in whooping cough.
In Texas, there have been more than 3,500 cases through October, about four times more than the same time last year, according to the state health department. The state saw a surge late last year, and experts said they expected to see the same this year.
In Oregon, the state recorded a record 1,475 cases for the year as of Dec. 10, surpassing the previous record from 1950. The Oregon Health Authority said one baby died of whooping cough this year, the first since 2012.
“Although infant deaths from whooping cough are rare, this highlights the importance we place on protecting babies,” an Oregon Health Authority spokesperson wrote in an email. “About a third of babies with whooping cough need to be hospitalized and one in 100 will die. »
At least six additional pertussis-related childhood deaths have been reported in the United States since September 2024: two in Louisiana, one in South Dakota and three in Kentucky.
“When we see these [deaths] …they are preventable. And when I say preventable, they are entirely preventable. We don’t have to worry about that,” said Dr. Raphael Mattamal, a hospital pediatrician at Texas Tech Physicians Pediatrics in Amarillo.
Sophie Owens said she had no idea how Feleena became infected. The whole family — Sophie, Justin and their eldest daughter, Brylee, had been vaccinated against the bacteria that causes whooping cough. Feleena was too young to have received the vaccines when she fell ill.
Sophie received a booster shot when she was pregnant. Pregnant women are encouraged to do this during their third trimester to give their baby some level of protection at birth – when they are most vulnerable to whooping cough – and before they themselves are eligible for vaccines.
However, this protection is not 100%.
“If there’s enough adequate protection in the community, these things don’t spread,” Mattamal said. This extra level of community protection is especially important when protecting people who cannot yet be vaccinated, like Feleena.
Whooping cough often begins like other typical winter illnesses: runny nose, slight cough, sometimes a low fever.
Violent coughing fits tend to follow. They can be severe enough to break ribs and cause collapsed lungs. Babies are most vulnerable because their tiny airways cannot withstand the pressure.
The cough can last for weeks or even months. People are contagious from the start of their symptoms until three weeks after the first coughing spell begins.
“It may still be in the air after someone leaves the room, especially if they coughed a lot,” Mattamal said. “You don’t need a lot of bacterial particles to pick them up.”
Many people, especially adults, do not know they are infected and continue to spread the bacteria unknowingly. A small study published in 1995 found that 20% of people who went to the emergency room with a cough lasting two to three weeks actually had whooping cough.
There is no specific treatment for the infection. Antibiotics, such as azithromycin or a Z-Pak, may be given to help clear bacteria from the nasal passages so patients cannot spread the disease as easily.
“An explosion of whooping cough cases”
In the 1920s, before the introduction of the whooping cough vaccine, there were approximately 200,000 cases of the disease each year in the United States. This figure fell to between 1,000 and 5,000 in the 1970s and 1980s.
But cases have increased steadily in the United States since the late 1990s and early 2000s, when 6,000 to 9,000 cases of whooping cough were diagnosed each year, according to CDC data. Cases declined during the pandemic, but then exploded.
