THURSDAY, Oct. 31, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Whooping cough is on the rise in the United States, with cases surging across the nation.

It’s important to remember that whooping cough, also known as pertussis, can impact adults as well as kids, according to Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) President Dr. Tina Tan.

“Adolescents and adults serve as a major source of transmission in the community because many physicians that care for adults continue to believe that pertussis is only a pediatric disease,” said Tan, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“They also believe that if a person has had the disease or received vaccines as a child that they are protected for life, which is completely not true," Tan added in a university news release. “It is important to diagnosis a person because they can be treated with antibiotics and close contacts can be prophylaxed with antibiotics.”

U.S. health officials recently reported that whooping cough cases are climbing at the fastest pace seen in years.

More than five times as many cases of whooping cough have been reported in this country as of Oct. 19, compared to the same time in 2023, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

There have been 19,662 whooping cough cases reported to the CDC, compared with 4,358 reported at this time last year, statistics show.

Pennsylvania has had the most this year, with 2,301 cases, followed by New York (1,999), Illinois (1,276), Wisconsin (1,249) and Ohio (944), according to the CDC.

Whooping cough is highly transmissible, on the order of measles, Tan noted.

Anyone can become infected, but babies younger than 6 months, people with immune deficiencies and the elderly are at highest risk for severe disease and death, Tan said.

The most common symptom in teens and adults is a prolonged cough that comes on suddenly and intensely. Coughing episodes can last a long time, and the person is contagious for up to one month after their cough begins, Tan said.

Whooping cough epidemics generally occur every three to five years, Tan said, but this cycle was disrupted during the pandemic when people were socially isolating or wearing masks.

This new increase might be the normal cycle, now that people have shed pandemic-era protections, Tan added.

Whooping cough might also be more infectious because of a decrease in routine vaccination rates among all age groups in the United States, Tan added.

There are now more people susceptible to whooping cough infection, who then can spread the disease to a larger number of people, Tan explained.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about whooping cough.

SOURCE: Northwestern University, news release, Oct. 29, 2024