Whooping cough cases are on the rise nationwide — and that includes an uptick in cases around the D.C. region. So far this year, the illness that comes with a telltale cough has sickened 743 people in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, compared to only 111 cases seen in all of 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“It’s so contagious,” said certified physician assistant Amanda Joy.
Joy, who is the associate medical director for MedStar Health Urgent Care centers in the D.C. region, said they’ve seen 20 patients with whooping cough since only October.
The illness, also known as pertussis, is usually kept at bay for many through a tetanus shot. But it’s especially being seen in clusters, such as school communities across the area, according to Joy.
“You can get (it) if you have not been vaccinated (or) if you have gone a while without a booster shot,” Joy said.
Nationwide, some states are declaring outbreaks of the illness after seeing hundreds of confirmed cases. In fact, the total cases this year is 23,544, compared to last year which saw a high of only 5,074 cases of whooping cough.
The CDC said this year marks a return to pre-pandemic levels of the illness, when more than 10,000 cases were reported annually.
The cases of whooping cough are carefully tracked, according to Joy, and reported to local health departments so any outbreaks can be identified.
“We have to do contact tracing for every provider in the clinic and every associate in the clinic to make sure they were masked during contact with that patient,” Joy said.
The highly contagious respiratory disease begins with cold-like symptoms, such as a runny nose or congestion, followed by a cough that causes someone to gasp for air. The coughing can be so severe that a person vomits, according to Joy.
“That’s what makes that ‘whooping’ noise, and that typically will develop around week one or two, and can continue for months at a time,” Joy said.
The illness is treated with antibiotics for most people, but can be serious, and even deadly, for infants and young children.
“Babies are at high risk and can require hospitalization about a third of the time when they get whooping cough, because they actually pause their breathing instead of whooping, and so they can have blue lips or other concerning symptoms,” Joy said.
For parents who suspect their young child has the illness, Joy urges them to take the child to the hospital or an urgent care clinic immediately.
Adults can also protect against whooping cough by getting a shot known as Tdap every 10 years. The shot combines vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis to hold those diseases away for a few years.
The CDC says vaccinated people can still come down with the illness though, especially since changes to whooping cough vaccines, a lack of testing to diagnose it and genetic changes to the bacteria have also led to a rise in cases since the 1990s.
Preventing the illness from spreading can be done by masking up, washing your hands and staying home when sick, since the CDC says the disease is the most contagious in the first two weeks after the coughing begins.
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