Whooping cough, a highly contagious and potentially dangerous disease, has soared in California this year, rebounding to levels not seen since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
All across California, fewer than 300 cases of pertussis (also known as whooping cough) were reported last year. According to the California Department of Public Health, 1,744 cases had been reported across the state this year as of the end of September.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infants under the age of 1 are most at risk for whooping cough. Other people at higher risk of severe illness include people who are immunocompromised and people with moderate to severe asthma.
In Los Angeles County, there have been 347 confirmed and suspected pertussis cases so far this year, up from 126 cases reported in all of 2023 and more than four times the 2022 total.
Nationally, more cases of pertussis were reported in 2024 than were reported in 2019, the previous year before the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. In recent years, infections of many common respiratory diseases have decreased significantly, thanks in part to precautions taken to fight coronavirus.
So far in 2024, the number of pertussis cases in Los Angeles County is 3.5 times higher than at the same time last year.
“We are certainly noticing an increase in schools reporting cases in some students,” said Dr. Nava Yegane, medical director for Vaccine Preventable Disease Control at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. . “We are watching it closely and trying to do whatever we can to reduce the number of pertussis cases.”
Whooping cough usually flares up every 3 to 5 years. “So the deadline has passed,” Yegane said. “The last time we had a big increase was in 2019. … We’re still not where we were in 2019, so we appreciate that, but we always keep an eye on the numbers.”
Los Angeles County reported 1,691 confirmed, suspected, and pertussis cases in 2019.
California’s worst whooping cough season in recent memory was in 2010, when more than 9,000 cases were reported, the most in 60 years, according to the California Department of Public Health. That year, 10 infants died from the disease. Four years later, more than 11,000 cases of whooping cough have been reported across the state and two infants have died.
The last infant death from pertussis in Los Angeles County was in 2014.
According to the CDC, whooping cough starts out like a cold but can become a severe illness with a cough that lasts for weeks or months. An infected person’s cough contains contagious bacteria that can be inhaled by people nearby.
People are contagious as soon as they feel sick, and they remain that way for at least two weeks after they start coughing. Antibiotics help shorten the duration of infection and slow the rate of disease transmission.
Whooping cough is named for the high-pitched whooping sound that can be heard when a patient inhales air after coughing. Some people describe whooping cough as causing the worst coughing attack they have ever experienced.
“It’s really painful to watch. I feel like I can’t breathe,” Yegane said.
People with these symptoms should get tested and treated and stay home to prevent the spread of the disease.
Whooping cough can cause serious illness in infants. According to the CDC, your baby may not be able to cough and instead go into apnea, or a life-threatening respiratory arrest. The baby may have difficulty breathing and may turn blue.
Infants may also suffer from something called pulmonary hypertension. This is when blood cannot pass through the arteries on its way to the lungs to pick up oxygen. Pertussis toxin can cause a reaction that increases white blood cell counts and can create sludge in blood vessels leading to the lungs, Yegane said.
“It will take a long time to turn things around,” Yegane said.
Schoolchildren are also said to have trouble sleeping because of their coughs. Adults can also break their ribs if they cough too much.
There is a vaccine for whooping cough. At two months of age, babies are given a formulation called DTaP. It protects against whooping cough, as well as diphtheria and tetanus. Another vaccine formulation, pertussis vaccine, called Tdap, is given to adolescents at age 11 or 12 and to adults every 10 years.
Additionally, starting in 2012, women were recommended to get pertussis vaccination every time they become pregnant. Pregnant mothers who are vaccinated pass protective antibodies to their babies.
Anyone caring for infants should also be vaccinated against whooping cough, Yegane said.
According to the CDC, vaccines do not 100% prevent infection, but even if you get vaccinated, your symptoms are usually milder.
People who have been exposed to someone with whooping cough but have not yet become sick themselves may be given antibiotics to boost their defenses against the disease. The CDC supports providing such post-exposure prophylaxis to all asymptomatic household contacts of a pertussis patient within 21 days after they begin coughing.
“About 80% of people in a household… [of a person with whooping cough] There is a possibility of infection,” Yegane said.
A Times analysis of state data from the beginning of the year to the end of September shows that the Greater San Francisco Bay Area has the highest per capita pertussis rate in the state, with 17 infections per 100,000 residents. . This is higher than the state’s overall infection rate of 5 cases per 100,000 residents.
In the greater Southern California area, the incidence of pertussis is approximately 4 per 100,000 residents.
The Bay Area’s high infection rate is primarily due to the high rate of infections reported in Marin County, which has 129 cases per 100,000 residents. At the beginning of this year, there were many cases related to infection within schools, but the number of cases has been decreasing since September.
The high case rate reported in Marin County may also be influenced by intensive testing practices.
San Diego County has the second-highest infection rate in the state, with 14 cases per 100,000 residents, according to an analysis of state data.
According to local data, there have been 547 confirmed and suspected pertussis cases in San Diego County so far this year, up from 332 cases in all of 2023, officials said. Pertussis patients range in age from less than 1 month old to 85 years old, with most cases occurring between 11 and 17 years old.
“Whooping cough activity continues to increase, and case growth is returning to pre-pandemic numbers,” Dr. Ankita Kadakia, San Diego County’s interim public health officer, said in a statement.
Los Angeles and Orange counties have a whooping cough incidence rate of about 2 per 100,000 residents, according to an analysis of state data.
Orange County had 74 cases of pertussis through October, according to the county health department. This is up from 11 cases in 2023, but still below the 185 cases confirmed in all of 2019.
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