Whooping cough cases, fueled by school outbreaks, triple in Colorado

Whooping cough cases in Colorado have tripled so far this year, and schools are experiencing clusters of the preventable respiratory disease, according to the state health department.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Colorado had 333 cases of pertussis, the formal name for whooping cough, as of Aug. 3. At the same time last year, the state had 90 cases.

Nationwide, cases so far this year have more than tripled compared to last year, with the highest counts in Pennsylvania and New York.

Cases of pertussis in Colorado had trended down for years before the pandemic, from 1,431 in 2013 to 465 in 2019, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. They hit a low of 29 in 2021, when most respiratory diseases largely went absent because of masking, social distancing and other COVID-19 precautions.

While the number of cases this year wouldn’t have been unusual before the pandemic, the health department is “concerned” that they continue to rise and because schools are having outbreaks, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said.

“We encourage people to make sure they and their children are up to date on vaccination, stay home when they’re sick and if they’re prescribed antibiotics, make sure they finish them,” she said in a statement.

Infants are at highest risk for complications, with about one in three needing hospital care and one in 100 dying, according to the CDC. People with less-severe cases don’t always have the characteristic “whoop” that comes from gasping for breath, and may spread the bacteria that cause it while thinking they have a lingering cold.