Why Are There So Many Cases of Whooping Cough?

In the US, whooping cough was more or less controlled until about a decade or two ago.  Pediatricians had long used a vaccination called DPT. That stood for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. Before the development of the vaccine, whooping cough killed many infants in this country and around the world. For years, though, the DPT shot did a pretty good job protecting people from this devastating lung infection.

Whooping cough is making a dramatic comeback in 2025, with cases soaring past 8,000—twice the number seen during the same period in 2024. And 2024 was much worse than 2023.

An article in the BMJ (April 8, 2025) titled “Whooping Cough: Cases Soar in US” notes:

“The US has reported 6600 cases of whooping cough (pertussis) in the first three months of 2025, more than four times the number at the same point last year and 25 times as many as had been reported at the same point in 2023.

“If the current trend continues, the country will be on course for the highest number of infections since vaccination was introduced in 1948.”

What Is Whooping Cough?

Pertussis is the medical term for whooping cough, a bacterial infection that attacks the lungs. Doctors first wrote about it with respect to the Paris epidemic of 1578, so it has been around a long time. That’s another characteristic of pertussis–the cough lasts a very long time. In the initial stage, patients and physicians are hard-pressed to distinguish between whooping cough and the common cold or any other respiratory infection.

The second phase has less fever but more cough, with a distinctive-sounding whoop following the repeated cough. Sometimes the cough is so severe that a person could break a rib. Babies may stop breathing during the coughing spasm.

I can speak with some authority that this is not your average cough. I caught pertussis when I was a kid. That was before the vaccine became widely available. The cough was horrific and it freaked my parents out. That cough lasted for what seemed like a very long time.

I suspect that it did some permanent damage to my lungs because when I catch an upper respiratory tract infection and start coughing, it sounds different from others who catch a similar infection. My coughs often last a lot longer that others in the family who catch the same infection. And the cough always sounds nasty.

Vaccinations Can Prevent Pertussis for a While:

We mentioned DPT, which saved lives but generated vaccine hesitancy because some children reacted badly to it. These days, whooping cough can be prevented by improved acellular vaccines called DTap (for young children) and TDap (for older children and adults). The protection does wear off, so teens and adults need boosters.

An Abbreviated History of Whooping Cough Cases:

Here are some CDC numbers of pertussis cases by year so you can get an idea of historical trends. (The DPT vaccine was launched in 1948.)

Year:          Cases of Whooping Cough

1925                                 152,003

1934                                 265,260

1941                                 222,202

1945                                133,792

1947                                156,517

1952                                 45,030

1957                                 28,295

1961                                 11,468

1965                                  6,799

1975                                  1,738

1985                                 3,589

1995                                 5,137

2005                              25,616

2015                              20,762

2024                             35,435

2025                              ??????

Whooping Cough on the Rise:

Starting just over two decades ago, some states began to see increases in the number of cases of pertussis. In 2010, California public health officials reported the worst outbreak in 50 years, with nearly 3,000 cases. That was not the only state experiencing a rise in whooping cough. Experts attributed the increase in part to decreased rates of vaccination, both in vulnerable infants and in older children and adults. Although the disease is much less serious in adults, they can spread it to babies who are not yet vaccinated. Vaccine complacency or hesitancy may have contributed to this bump.

Pandemic Problems with Vaccination:

During the pandemic, many young children did not get their usual well-child checkups when routine vaccinations would have been administered. Before the pandemic, the US averaged almost 10,000 cases a year. Vaccine hesitancy started before the COVID pandemic but has accelerated over the last few years. That may be contributing to the resurgence of this infection.

According to the Washington Post (April 22, 2025):

” In 2024, the number of whooping cough cases in the U.S. climbed to the highest level in a decade. The latest figures show the disease’s spread continues to accelerate — and indicates that the country is backsliding in keeping children from dying of preventable diseases, said Paul Offit, an infectious-diseases physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who directs its vaccine education center.

“The jump in whooping cough cases coincides with a worsening national measles outbreak, both driven in part by declining childhood vaccination rates.”

Final Words:

I am hardly an impartial observer when it comes to vaccines. I caught polio as a young child, before there were vaccines against polio. I also caught whooping cough before the DPT vaccine became widespread. I could have died from either disease.

Both left me with lasting scars. In the case of polio, I do have some detectable nerve damage in my legs, though it has not kept me from playing tennis. The emotional scars are much deeper. And as already mentioned, my lungs were probably scarred from my bout with pertussis. You do not want to be around me when I catch a cold and start whooping when I cough.

I fear that children will die from pertussis over the coming months. Dr. Paul Offit works at the CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). That’s where I was hospitalized with polio in the late 1940s. Dr. Offit points out that children have already died of whooping cough “in states where you haven’t had a child death in years.”

The pertussis vaccine protection does not last a lifetime. That’s why susceptible adults may need a booster. While older people are not as vulnerable as young children, that does not mean they are home free.

The National Council on Aging offers the following advice:

” Any older adult who didn’t get the Tdap [tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis] vaccination as an adolescent should get one dose of the vaccine. After that initial dose, the CDC recommends a Tdap or Td booster shot every 10 years for life. The Td vaccine protects against tetanus and diphtheria, but not whooping cough.”

If you know someone who might benefit from this article please pass it on via social media or email. Thank you for supporting our work.