A Victorian-era disease that is killing children in the United Kingdom is now reappearing in American elementary schools.
Whooping cough, or whooping cough, is one of the most infectious diseases and particularly dangerous for very young children whose immune systems are still developing.
In the UK, five babies, including some who were otherwise healthy, have already died from the disease this year, and cases are on track to reach their highest level in more than four decades with almost 3,000 recorded.
And now, a similar wave is hitting the US, with elementary schools across the country, including those in New York City and San Francisco, reporting outbreaks.
Infections on this side of the Atlantic have already exceeded 4,800, which is equivalent to 270 percent more cases than at the same time last year. No deaths have been reported and it is unclear if there are cases among people who have not been vaccinated.
The graph above shows the number of whooping cough cases in 2023 and 2024 in the week ending May 25 in both years.
After her condition worsened, she was transferred to St Mary’s Hospital in London, where she was diagnosed with the condition and put on a ventilator. Polly is now awake and breathing independently. Mrs Pearson (pictured) said: “I have never felt more relieved in my life. I watched them take out the tubes and turn off all the machines (while she recovered). It was the best thing I have ever seen.
Riley Hughes (pictured with his mother Catherine) was healthy when he died of whooping cough at just one month old in 2015.
Official CDC figures show that so far in 2024, cases have already surpassed the number recorded in 2022, 2021 and 2020, when they peaked at 2,300 cases.
Experts say it is also on track to surpass the figure for 2023, when 5,346 infections were recorded.
The United States in 2012 recorded the highest number of cases since the 1950s, when 48,277 people were diagnosed with the disease, and the increase was related to waning immunity and changes in testing.
In the current outbreak, several states are behind the surge and are reporting an increase in cases, including Oregon, where infections are up 770 percent from last year, or 178 cases recorded so far compared to 20 in 2023, and Pennsylvania, which has recorded 601 cases, the most of any state to date.
Elementary schools in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Northern California, New Jersey and New York have also reported outbreaks, reporting that about a dozen children have been infected at each.
The disease is also increasing globally, with China recording more than 32,000 cases by February this year, a 20-fold increase from 1,400 in 2023, and the increase is also related to waning immunity to the shots.
Experts fear the disease is making a resurgence amid falling vaccination rates and waning immunity among adults, creating ideal conditions for it to return.
There is also concern that immigrants could bring the disease to the United States, due to different vaccination standards in their home countries.
Polly Deehy’s mother (pictured, abandoned in hospital) has urged others to get vaccinated against whooping cough to protect babies after her daughter had to remain in a coma for ten days. Another mother in the UK also made an emotional plea after her one-month-old daughter, Rosie Robin (pictured), was hospitalized for two weeks with the illness.
Adults and most children are protected from the disease by vaccination: they receive five doses administered from the age of two months to the seventh birthday, and a sixth between the ages of 11 and 12.
It is also recommended that adults receive a booster dose every 10 years, and that pregnant women receive a vaccine between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy.
Patients are offered the DTaP vaccine, or the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, which is up to 98 percent effective in preventing the disease.
All 50 states require children to receive the DTaP vaccine to attend kindergarten, although it is possible to obtain a medical exemption.
Adults who contract the disease usually suffer a mild illness with a runny nose and mild cough, similar to a cold.
But babies, and even healthy babies, are at high risk of infection because they are too young to be vaccinated.
And because their lungs are so small that they may not be able to withstand the coughing fits caused by the infection.
In the UK, a mother is urging more people to get vaccinated against whooping cough to protect babies after her daughter Polly was left in a coma for 10 days due to the illness.
Kerry Pearson, 26, told the media: ‘I just want people to be aware. You should get the whooping cough vaccine. If they don’t offer it, demand it.
“If you’re an anti-vaxxer, reconsider; this is deadly for babies; it’s not worth the risk.” It’s not worth going through what we’re going through.’
Her daughter was just two weeks old when she woke up with a cough and difficulty breathing on April 6 of this year.
However, after four days of coughing at home, she suddenly turned blue and her parents took their daughter to the hospital.
Three days after she was admitted, she was put on a ventilator and the tubes were disconnected just two weeks after she began to recover.
Speaking of the experience, Mrs Pearson added: “I’ve never felt more relieved in my life. I watched them take out the tubes and turn off all the machines (while she recovered). It was the best thing ever.
“The odds were not in his favor, but he has been very lucky. There is no evidence of any lasting problems, but you may have some weakness in your lungs; time will tell.
Whooping cough is transmitted through aerosolized droplets emitted when an infected person coughs.
Adults suffer from a mild illness, characterized by a runny nose and mild cough, similar to the flu.
Data suggests that fewer Americans are getting vaccinated against the disease in the wake of the Covid pandemic, raising the risk of the disease resurfacing.
But in babies, the disease can be fatal and quickly lead to cough paroxysms, in which the cough comes on quickly and increases in intensity. It can also leave them feeling nauseous and short of breath.
It can be fatal if the disease causes babies to receive too little oxygen, which can cause brain damage and seizures. It can also weaken the immune system, increasing the risk of secondary infections, such as pneumonia, which can be fatal.
About one in five babies who contract whooping cough develops pneumonia, while one in 100 dies from the infection.
In the United States, about 200,000 cases of whooping cough and 9,000 deaths of children due to this disease were recorded each year.
But after a vaccine was introduced in 1991, these numbers have plummeted: up to 20 babies now die from the infection each year.
However, vaccination rates among children in the US are falling, and experts fear this could open the door to more cases and new outbreaks.
CDC data shows that nearly 95 percent of kindergartners were up to date on the DTaP vaccine as of 2019, right at the threshold needed to prevent an outbreak.
But since then, rates have dropped. The latest estimate for the 2022-2023 school year shows that only 92.7 percent had been vaccinated.