United States: Recently, several of the US states saw a major jump in very contagious whooping cough disease, which is recently being reported in San Antonio, and cases were also reported to soar previously in other Texas cities.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported that the city has risen with a 230 percent increase from the cases reported in 2023 in the same period.
More about the news
This year, San Antonio has confirmed fifty cases of whooping cough, locally known as pertussis. San Antonio Met Health Deputy Director Dr. Anita K Kurian noted this.
She added to MySA that the city had breached the previous levels, as there were only 60 whooping cough cases in 2019.
According to Kurain, “We had these pandemic preventive measures put in place, such as masking, social distancing, avoiding large crowd gatherings. Those preventive measures do not just curb the spread of COVID, but they also help curb other respiratory illnesses, including whooping cough,” mysanantonio.com reported.
“Now these COVID preventive measures are a thing of the past, and we are seeing respiratory illnesses, including whooping cough, going back to the pre-pandemic level,” she added.
Rising cases of the disease
San Antonio is not alone in rising cases of illness. In Texas, the cases of whooping cough have quadrupled the number of cases reported at the same time in 2023, added the Texas Department of State Health Services.
This is in line with a national trend where a greater than fivefold increase in 2024 cases emerges based on preliminary data.
Reasons behind the rise in cases
Whooping cough is another terribly contagious respiratory scourge, and those in close contact with each other are most likely to inhale the same air containing the bacteria.
Epidemics are not easy to control because most are hidden In the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At the initial stage, symptoms of whooping cough are like the flu, but thereafter, the symptoms are the classic signs of common cold, Kurian added.
Moreover, within the first two weeks, the common signs might include watery eyes, a runny nose, fullness in the head, headache, and low temperature. Furthermore, as experts state, this is followed by coughing.
More about symptoms
The cough, in most cases, worsens and grows more frequent with the progression of the disease and affects breathing, causing vomiting or a ‘whooping’ sound when breathing, mysanantonio.com reported.
Kurian also said that two weeks is considered to be the most common infection period.
Those under one year are considered infectious from the onset of cold-like symptoms until five days of treatment or until twenty-one days after the onset of cough if no or partial treatment is administered.