In 2024, cases of whopping cough, both reported and confirmed, grew across the U.S., and trended more towards normal. Data representing the first 50 weeks of 2024 are preliminary and indicate that we have 5.6 times as many cases through week 50 reported on 14 December 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This year’s number of reported cases is more than at the same time in 2019, before the pandemic.Â
The latest whooping cough outbreak 2024 cases are higher than at the same time last year. Over 10,000 cases of whopping cough are reported in the US every year, and with recent data, the country is progressing towards pre-pandemic days. Maturation of pertussis likely attenuated transmission, but downstream mitigation measures used during the pandemic (masking, remote learning) may have lowered transmission. It is an endemic disease in the United States.
Pertussis is a nationally notifiable disease. All patients suspected of having pertussis should be notified by healthcare providers and routed to the appropriate health department. Health departments should be notified of all positive pertussis laboratory results and notified when the final result is negative. Pertussis cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are received from state health departments and reported through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). NNDSS helps monitor epidemiologic trends for disease over time.
Early on, the pertussis symptoms match with the viral flu. Often, healthcare providers will only diagnose it after the manifestation of critical symptoms. The primary signs can be present for up to 2 weeks and include rhinitis also known as congested nasal airway, mild temperature (often <100.4oF) mild infrequent coughing, and babies are seen to struggle with breathing. Babies who are affected with a whopping cough don’t experience coughing, rather they experience apnea, a critical absence of breathing for more than 10 seconds. Cyanosis (turn blues) or they fight to breathe. Whooping cough may appear like a regular flu infection in some babies for the whole sick period, right from the beginning of whopping cough.
The later Symptoms include rapid, intense, and unstoppable coughing seizures. People may then develop paroxysms, or coughing seizures for 1 to 2 consecutive weeks after the first pertussis symptoms start. These symptoms last for a minimum of 7 days to 6 weeks and may extend to 10 weeks in extreme cases.
The cough usually gets severe and becomes more frequent as the illness goes on. People can make sharp ‘whoops’ when they breathe in after an intense seizure. You may vomit after or during a coughing seizure, or you may experience extreme tiredness right after your seizure but seem well between fits. As age increases, sleep will be affected. This finally leads to asleep at night, and it’s a difficult task to breathe. There may be chances of breaking a rib. People who have experienced these cough seizures describe them as dreadful cough experiences of their lives. Â
CDC has recommended a pertussis vaccine for almost everyone from babies, preteens, teens, adults, and even pregnant women. Despite the awareness about vaccination and how it helps to prevent the outbreak, the vaccination rates have been declining in the last five years in the US.
More than 94% of children born between 2018 and 2019 had received at least three doses of the DTap shot by their second birthdays, but the rate dropped to about 92.5% for those born between 2020 and 2021, a CDC report released in September found.
The reported adverse drug reactions (ADR) in >10% population receiving the DTap vaccine include tiredness (4 – 61%), irritability (7 – 65%), injection site pain (13%), injection site tenderness (29%) injection site swelling. Crying (1%), erythema at the injection site (3%) induration, and vomiting remained rare ADR. Guillain-Barre syndrome is reported in the Post marketing ADR.
Questions about safety or future concerns should be discussed with the health care professional (HCP) before these vaccines are taken by lactating or breastfeeding mothers, though pregnancy exposure to this vaccine has not been reported to cause harm to the fetus or the mother.
During outbreaks, public health authorities try to protect the most at risk of having severe illness with strategies that include vaccination and preventive antibiotics for high-risk groups and people around them. It’s also a second goal to protect all other people from getting whooping cough.
Reference: CDC. About Whooping Cough Outbreaks. 2024. Accessed from https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/outbreaks/index.html
