Whooping cough often surges in the fall, and with a rising number of bacterial respiratory disease cases, doctors are reminding families of what can be done to protect those with the youngest lungs.
“It often starts out as a mild cough, but then can progress to a more serious cough and respiratory distress,” said Dr. Katie Ryder, a family medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The contagious disease can develop into painful coughing fits, often accompanied by a whooping sound as the person tries to catch their breath.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is especially dangerous for infants, who are extremely vulnerable, according to Ryder.
“It’s a combination of a young immune system and the baby’s ability to clear the bacteria, but also what the bacteria is doing inside the airways, which is kind of stripping the healthy lining of those airways,” said Ryder. “And in those tiny, little lungs, they’re just not resilient enough to withstand it.”
Since 1997, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that infants receive their first pertussis vaccine at the age of two months.
“So, in those first couple months of life, before the infant can be protected with their own vaccines, the best way to protect those youngest infants is to vaccinate mom,” said Ryder.
“We strongly recommend vaccination in the third trimester of pregnancy, which allows mom to pass those protective antibodies to the baby before they’re even born, so they can be born with that protection until they can get their own vaccines,” Ryder added.
In addition, physicians recommend to parents of new babies, “If they have a family member, or nanny, or babysitter who’s going to be taking care of the infant, regularly, that person also become fully vaccinated,” against whooping cough and other respiratory diseases.
“When we can create that kind of bubble of immunity around the infant, we can protect the infant until they’re ready to receive the vaccines for themselves,” said Ryder.
According to the CDC’s 2024 Provisional Pertussis Surveillance Report, the number of reported pertussis cases was 35,435 — up substantially from the previous year. Of the 10 reported pertussis deaths in the U.S., six were in children below the age of 12 months.
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