Whooping cough is back. Get vaxxed before rfk guts the health system [View all]

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/why-whooping-cough-surging-bay-area-19920052.php

Health experts are advising Bay Area residents to keep up with their vaccinations amid a steep rise in whooping cough cases. After a sharp drop in cases during the pandemic, the persistent, violent cough also known as pertussis is back.

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Across the state, cases of the highly contagious infection were even higher in 2019. But social distancing practices and mask mandates helped keep numbers low during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to George Han, a director specializing in communicable disease control and prevention with the San Francisco Public Health Department.

“In San Francisco, it seems to be in line with what we would see in a three- to five-year cycle that has been delayed because of the pandemic,” Han told SFGATE.

Dr. Paul Katz, a pediatrician at Kaiser’s San Rafael Park Medical Office, told SFGATE that the uptick is not surprising because whooping cough surges every few years.

The outbreak also is consistent with a nationwide trend. As of Nov. 9, 23,544 cases of whooping cough cases have been reported across the country, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s almost a fivefold increase from the number of cases during the same period last year. In California, there have been 1,391 cases through Nov. 9, compared with 425 in 2023.