Provincetown Independent: A Resurgence of Whooping Cough Reaches Cape
By Paul Benson, Provincetown Independent | January 8, 2025
Pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough for the piercing inhalations or “whoops” that punctuate its painful coughing attacks, has re-emerged in New England this year after four years of few infections, and Cape Cod cases are rising as well.
There were 28 cases of whooping cough on Cape Cod from mid-June to mid-December 2024, according to Lea Hamner, an epidemiologist for the Cape and Islands. One of those cases was a young child who had to be hospitalized, Hamner said — the only case that has resulted in hospitalization so far.
In addition to being painful, the disease can be lethal for infants who are less able to clear their lungs of mucus and fluid, Hamner said.
As is common with whooping cough, most of those cases have been in people ages 10 to 19, Hamner said. There’s been one case at Nauset Regional High School, according to a notification sent to parents by the Nauset School District on Jan. 2.
There had been no cases at all on Cape Cod for four and a half years, as the disease was effectively shut down by the intense measures taken to fight the Covid pandemic, according to Hamner. Those respiratory precautions worked on this disease, but now it’s coming back, she said.
That same pattern is playing out nationwide: case numbers that had been low for four years are now about double what they were in 2019, before the pandemic, according to state-by-state data from the Centers for Disease Control.
The disease’s re-emergence has been especially pronounced in New England. According to CDC data, the numbers jumped from 14 cases of pertussis in Massachusetts in 2023 to 841 cases in 2024. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont reported similarly sharp increases last year.
Pertussis typically begins with unremarkable symptoms, including sniffles, sneezing, and a persistent runny nose; that mild phase can last for two weeks.
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