Cases dropped during the pandemic, but are now climbing once more. Here’s what to know.
After a yearslong lull thanks to Covid-19 precautions like isolation and distancing, whooping cough cases are now climbing back to levels seen before the pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So far this year, there have been 10,865 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, nationwide. That’s more than triple the number of cases documented by this time last year, and is also higher than what was seen at this time in 2019. Doctors say these estimates are most likely an undercount, as many people may not realize they have whooping cough and therefore are never tested.
The pandemic delayed routine childhood vaccinations, including those that protect against whooping cough, and led to fewer pregnant women getting vaccinated. Those factors have likely contributed to the current uptick in cases, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Pertussis cases tend to peak in the summer and fall, he said, and so it’s particularly critical to be aware of the disease now, as children head back to school and respiratory illnesses pick up.
What are the symptoms?
The disease can cause sneezing, a runny nose, fever, watery eyes and fierce fits of coughing. Occasionally, these coughing spells can restrict breathing so intensely that people’s lips, tongues and nailbeds can turn blue from lack of oxygen.
Ideally, people would get tested when their symptoms are mild and they haven’t developed a cough, but it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between run-of-the-mill sniffles and the start of pertussis, said Dr. Aaron Milstone, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
“Adults are having pertussis all the time, but they’re not being recognized as pertussis,” said Dr. James Cherry, a distinguished professor of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at U.C.L.A. who has studied whooping cough. “Only a very small percentage of them ever get diagnosed.”