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Whooping cough highest since 1948
Posted 12/19/12
DENVER — Colorado is having its worst whooping cough season in at least six decades.
As of Dec. 8, 1,407 cases of whopping cough have been reported in Colorado, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said Tuesday. That’s the highest number on record since 1948, when there were 1,833 cases.
An older adult from Larimer County died of the highly contagious disease in October, the first whooping cough death in Colorado since 2005, when two infants died.
Whooping cough, officially called pertussis, gets its name from the sound those afflicted with it make when they gasp for breath.
It has made a resurgence across the country, and 2012 is on track to be the nation’s worst for whooping cough since 1959.
Health experts aren’t completely sure why cases are increasing, but one possible reason is that the current vaccine against the disease, introduced in 1997, doesn’t provide immunity for as long as the previous version, said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, immunization director at the state health department. Cases also seem to spike every three to five years and, with the last busy whooping cough year in 2005, Herlihy said officials had been expecting another increase.