It’s CBS 58 in Milwaukee. Health officials are telling families that the number of people who have whooping cough is going up.
The CDC says that the number of cases has jumped across the country since this time last year.
Cases are also going up very quickly in Wisconsin. There were 51 cases recorded last year, but this year there are 278.
The medical head of UW Health’s immunization program is Dr. Jim Conway, who is also a pediatric infectious disease doctor.
He says that whooping cough is easily spread through the air and that it does so quickly.
“It causes swelling of the airways, damage in the airways, and this really pronounced cough, and it’s particularly a problem in small babies who obviously have very narrow airways,” he added.
Conway says that it quickly spreads once it starts in a group.
“People are contagious before they actually develop symptoms, and then can remain contagious for many weeks,” he noted.
It’s likely that the rise is due to fewer people getting vaccinated and more people traveling after the pandemic.
“We’re seeing lots of vaccine preventable diseases get reintroduced into various areas of the world,” he said.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says that more than half of the cases they see are from people 11 to 18 years old. Infants are the most at risk.
Whooping cough can happen to anyone, and once it does, you need to take medicines to stop it from spreading.
Doctors are telling people to get all of their important shots on time.