US whooping cough cases surge as vaccine rates fall

US whooping cough cases surge as vaccine rates fall

The US has tallied 8077 cases of whooping cough in 2025, compared with 3847 cases in the same period last year, federal data shows.

Whooping Cough Cases Are Surging in 2025

Editor’s note: This story is an update of an article originally published on August 20. Whooping cough — a highly transmissible infection of the lungs and airways that mostly affects babies and young children — is on the rise in the United States. Also called pertussis, the condition gets its name from a distinctive high-pitched intake of air that commonly follows a severe coughing fit. An audio recording posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis…