Health
Whooping Cough on Track for Worst US Outbreak in 70 Years
The DTaP vaccine is recommended for babies as young as two months, with two booster shots by six months of age.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Whooping cough cases have surged in the US since the beginning of the year, infecting Americans at a faster pace than any time since the mid-1950s as national vaccination rates decline and protection wanes.
The bacterial infection also known as pertussis has sickened 8,077 people in the US through April 16, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than double the same period a year ago, when the agency confirmed 3,847 cases, and rivals the 2012 outbreak that was the biggest in half a century.