Since January, whooping cough cases have risen dramatically in the UK and the rest of Europe, the biggest rise since 2012. Small outbreaks have been reported among high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and several isolated cases in Hawaii.
From October to the beginning of the year, New York City suffered an outbreak with more than 200 cases, mostly among young children. Annual cases dropped sharply in the first two years of the pandemic, down to 6,100 in 2020 and just 2,100 a year later. The coronavirus pandemic may have disrupted the normal pertussis cycle because people weren't getting vaccinated on time and families weren't seeing their doctors as often as we'd like," said Thomas Murray, a professor of pertussis disease at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2024, cases in the US in 2024 remain lower than pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, typically about 20,000 a year. Masking and physical distancing disrupted thenormal cycles of many respiratory illnesses, including the common cold, RSV, and flu. The DTaP vaccine series prevents diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The DTPa vaccine is 98% effective in preventing whooping cough during the first year after a five-dose series. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends pregnant mothers get the Tdap vaccine during the third trimester. The CDC advises women to get a booster shot with each pregnancy and recommends adults get a Td or Ttap vaccine every 10 years, noting that protection wanes over time....ADOLENTS AND ADULTS MAY REQUIRE REINFORCEMENT from the CDC, but compliance with this rule is not optimal, giving older people the opportunity to contract it, Schaffner said.. If a baby's lips turn blue or he doesn't seem to be breathing as he normally would, that "is something to worry about, especially if he's been around someone who is sick," Schaffer said.