United States: Whooping cough is spreading more across the country, which mainly includes in the D.C. area. So far this year, 743 people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia have caught it, compared to just 111 cases in all of 2023. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says it’s highly contagious.
Amanda Joy, a certified physician assistant, explained that the disease is so easy to catch. She works at MedStar Health Urgent Care centers and shared that they’ve seen 20 patients with whooping cough since October alone.
Among the is diseases, also called pertussis, many keep it under control with a tetanus shot. But it’s especially being seen in clusters, such as school communities across the area, according to Joy.
“You can catch it if you have not been vaccinated or if you have gone a while without a booster shot,” Joy said.

As reported by wtop.com, the Across the country, some states begin defining epidemics of the illness after hundred confirmed cases have been reported. Indeed, the total cases this year is 23,544 and last year the number reaches its highest of 5,074 cases of whooping cough only.
According to the CDC, this year reflects the first time that yearly cases of the illness are at pre-pandemic levels above 10,000 cases.
Joy says that cases of whooping cough are closely monitored and reported to the local Departments of Health so any outbreaks can be recognized.
“Every provider in the clinic requires contact tracing to ensure they wore a mask during contact with that patient,” she said.
It is a highly infectious respiratory disease that starts with flu-like symptoms which include having a runny nose or congestion and is then replaced by a cough that makes the person puff, as it were. The coughing is said to be severe that a person eats what he/she vomits, according to Joy.
“That’s whooping and that usually form on week one or two and can last for weeks, and even months at a time”, Silvia noted.
It’s largely curable through the use of antibiotics in most populations but fatal in infants and young children.
Babies are at high risk and about a third of the time need to be hospitalized when the get whooping cough because they actually stop breathing instead of whooping, and they may have blue lips or other worrisome signs.