Whooping cough is surging. Here’s what you should know.

Health officials are sounding the alarm as cases of whooping cough surge across the nation.

It is important to remember whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is not only a pediatric disease, says Northwestern University pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Tina Tan, who recently was named president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

"Adolescents and adults serve as a major source of transmission in the community because many physicians that care for adults continue to believe that pertussis is only a pediatric disease," said Tan, professor of pediatrics (infectious diseases) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

"They also believe that if a person has had the disease or received vaccines as a child that they are protected for life, which is completely not true," she said. "It is important to diagnosis a person because they can be treated with antibiotics and close contacts can be prophylaxed with antibiotics."

With the disease spreading quickly across the U.S., Northwestern Now spoke with Tan to get her insight and some context about whooping cough today.

Quick facts about whooping cough

• It is one of the most common causes of upper respiratory tract infections and is highly transmissible (on the order of the transmissibility of measles).
• People of any age can become infected, but very young infants under six months of age, people with underlying immune deficiencies and the elderly are at highest risk for complications from the disease.
• Young infants under two months of age are at the highest risk for severe pertussis and death.
• Most common symptom in adolescents and adults is a prolonged cough that came on suddenly and intensely.
• Coughing episodes can last for a prolonged period of time with the person being contagious for up to one month after the cough begins.

Why there has been a rise in cases?

• Whooping cough epidemics generally occur on an every three- to five-year cycle. This cycle was disrupted during the pandemic when people were isolating or wearing masks so that transmission from one person to another was limited. The organism that causes whooping cough - gram negative bacteria Bordetella pertussis - was circulating in the community but the protective measures prevented spread much like what was seen with other respiratory pathogens. The current increase may be the normal cycle now that protective measures are no longer being used.
• The decrease in routine vaccination rates in all age groups also contributes to the amount of disease as there are now more susceptible individuals of all ages.
• The increased number of susceptible individuals means that if a person is infected, they would be able to spread the disease to a larger number of people.
• The increased use of respiratory pathogen panels that contain pertussis in patients presenting to emergency rooms, minute clinics and urgent care clinics also contributes to the increased detection of cases.

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