logo
Louisiana on track for record whooping cough cases

Louisiana on track for record whooping cough cases

Axios09-06-2025
Whooping cough is spreading faster in Louisiana than it has in more than a decade, and health officials warn that this year could set a record for cases.
Why it matters: Adults need to take precautions to keep infants safe, doctors say, because they are most at risk for complications from the illness.
The big picture: Louisiana has had 170 cases reported as of May 14, surpassing the number for the entire year of 2024, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
The current record of 214 cases was set in 2013.
Threat level: Two babies have died in Louisiana since September, marking the state's first deaths from whooping cough, or pertussis, since 2018, LDH says.
Since September, 42 people have been hospitalized, with about 70% of them younger than 12 months.
So far this year, the pertussis case rate for infants in Louisiana is at least seven times higher than all other age groups, LDH says.
Cases are increasing nationally as well. Health officials attribute some of the rise in cases to declining vaccination rates and waning immunity.
What he's saying:"It is a horrible disease," says Joshua Sharfstein, a pediatrician and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Babies really do struggle to catch their breath, and sometimes they stop breathing altogether and it's terrifying to watch."
When babies are being hospitalized with whooping cough, he said it's an indicator that more adolescents and adults also have it but probably haven't been diagnosed.
The babies usually get exposed because someone else in the household is coughing, he said.
How it works: Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis.
It spreads through coughing, sneezing and close contact, LDH says.
Symptoms include runny nose, sneezing, intense coughing fits and post-coughing vomiting for two to three weeks. Severe cases can hinder breathing and last for months.
Zoom in: Two vaccines (Tdap and DTaP) prevent serious complications, LDH says, and are available for children and adults.
But protection fades over time. LDH recommends that adults get a booster shot every 10 years.
Medical providers can do a nasal swab test to check if you have whooping cough.
Antibiotics treat the symptoms and the spread if given early, LDH says.
What to do for teens and adults: If you have a cough and are around babies, seek medical attention earlier than you would if you aren't around babies, Sharfstein encourages.
Tell the doctor you live with or interact with an infant regularly, because the doctor may think differently about your cough, he said.
Check your vaccine records, and get a booster if needed, he advised.
For babies: "I would say a cough that doesn't look right to the parents always needs to be checked out by the doctor," Sharfstein said, especially if it is a persistent cough that's interfering with a child's ability to do normal things.
He encourages parents to create a cocoon around infants by making sure everyone is vaccinated and gets tested quickly if they have a cough.
Go deeper
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Study: Statins could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes
Study: Statins could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes

Miami Herald

time4 days ago

  • Miami Herald

Study: Statins could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes

July 2 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of people suffer needless heart attacks and strokes every year because they aren't taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, a new study says. More than 39,000 deaths, nearly 100,000 non-fatal heart attacks and up to 65,000 strokes in the U.S. could be prevented if people eligible for statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs were taking them, researchers reported Monday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Nearly half of Americans (47%) who have never had a heart attack or stroke are eligible to take statins under U.S. guidelines, researchers found. But fewer than a quarter (23%) of them have been prescribed the life-saving drugs, results show. A substantial number of heart attack or stroke survivors also aren't taking the drugs, even though all are eligible for them under U.S. guidelines, researchers said. 'These results add to a growing body of evidence that there are important shortcomings in the quality of care for common and costly chronic diseases such as high cholesterol, and that addressing those shortcomings would yield major public health benefits,' lead researcher Dr. Caleb Alexander, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 U.S. adults between 40 and 75 years of age who took part in an annual U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health survey between 2013 and 2020. The survey included data on the people's 'bad' LDL cholesterol levels and their overall heart health risk profile. Researchers used that info to determine whether they'd be eligible to take cholesterol-lowering drugs under current guidelines. Even people who had suffered a prior heart attack and stroke -- and thus are at higher risk for a follow-up event -- aren't always prescribed statins, researchers found. Only about two-thirds (68%) are taking statins, even though all are eligible for the drugs under the guidelines, results show. Along with warding off heart attacks and strokes, properly prescribed statins also could prevent every year nearly 88,000 heart bypass surgeries and procedures to reopen blocked or clogged arteries, researchers estimated. If everyone eligible for statins took them, researchers estimate that average LDL cholesterol levels would drop sharply and the risk of heart attack or stroke would fall by up to 27%. Preventing heart attacks and strokes through cholesterol-lowering drugs also could save more than $30 billion in annual medical costs for the U.S., researchers estimate. 'Several factors account for the gaps that we document,' Alexander said. 'They include differences in clinician training, patient preferences, barriers to accessing care, financial incentives that don't always support best practices, and the difficulty of putting clinical guidelines into practice in busy, real-world settings.' Better patient education and improved screening methods could make sure the right people are taking the statins they need, researchers said. 'High cholesterol is an important chronic health condition that silently claims far too many lives -there are millions of people walking around with this condition that don't even know they have it, and then when it is recognized it too often goes undertreated,' senior author Dr. Seth Martin, a professor of cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a news release. 'Evidence-based action is critical to close the gap and prevent devastating cardiovascular events,' he said. More information Harvard Medical School has more on statins. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Study: Statins could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes
Study: Statins could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes

UPI

time5 days ago

  • UPI

Study: Statins could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, strokes

More than 39,000 deaths, nearly 100,000 non-fatal heart attacks and up to 65,000 strokes in the U.S. could be prevented if people eligible for statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs were taking them, researchers reported Monday. Adobe stock/HealthDay July 2 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of people suffer needless heart attacks and strokes every year because they aren't taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, a new study says. More than 39,000 deaths, nearly 100,000 non-fatal heart attacks and up to 65,000 strokes in the U.S. could be prevented if people eligible for statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs were taking them, researchers reported Monday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Nearly half of Americans (47%) who have never had a heart attack or stroke are eligible to take statins under U.S. guidelines, researchers found. But fewer than a quarter (23%) of them have been prescribed the life-saving drugs, results show. A substantial number of heart attack or stroke survivors also aren't taking the drugs, even though all are eligible for them under U.S. guidelines, researchers said. "These results add to a growing body of evidence that there are important shortcomings in the quality of care for common and costly chronic diseases such as high cholesterol, and that addressing those shortcomings would yield major public health benefits," lead researcher Dr. Caleb Alexander, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 5,000 U.S. adults between 40 and 75 years of age who took part in an annual U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health survey between 2013 and 2020. The survey included data on the people's "bad" LDL cholesterol levels and their overall heart health risk profile. Researchers used that info to determine whether they'd be eligible to take cholesterol-lowering drugs under current guidelines. Even people who had suffered a prior heart attack and stroke -- and thus are at higher risk for a follow-up event -- aren't always prescribed statins, researchers found. Only about two-thirds (68%) are taking statins, even though all are eligible for the drugs under the guidelines, results show. Along with warding off heart attacks and strokes, properly prescribed statins also could prevent every year nearly 88,000 heart bypass surgeries and procedures to reopen blocked or clogged arteries, researchers estimated. If everyone eligible for statins took them, researchers estimate that average LDL cholesterol levels would drop sharply and the risk of heart attack or stroke would fall by up to 27%. Preventing heart attacks and strokes through cholesterol-lowering drugs also could save more than $30 billion in annual medical costs for the U.S., researchers estimate. "Several factors account for the gaps that we document," Alexander said. "They include differences in clinician training, patient preferences, barriers to accessing care, financial incentives that don't always support best practices, and the difficulty of putting clinical guidelines into practice in busy, real-world settings." Better patient education and improved screening methods could make sure the right people are taking the statins they need, researchers said. "High cholesterol is an important chronic health condition that silently claims far too many lives -there are millions of people walking around with this condition that don't even know they have it, and then when it is recognized it too often goes undertreated," senior author Dr. Seth Martin, a professor of cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a news release. "Evidence-based action is critical to close the gap and prevent devastating cardiovascular events," he said. More information Harvard Medical School has more on statins. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

New docs get schooled in old diseases as vax rates fall
New docs get schooled in old diseases as vax rates fall

Axios

time30-06-2025

  • Axios

New docs get schooled in old diseases as vax rates fall

Rush University Medical Center in Chicago is adding a new twist to its curriculum for medical students and residents, using AI tools and learning modules to teach how to more quickly identify measles rashes on different skin tones. Why it matters: It's another reminder that diseases once thought to have been eradicated are showing up with increased frequency in clinics and ERs, posing challenges for younger physicians and health workers who thought they were relegated to history. Lingering vaccine hesitancy and distrust of the medical establishment stoked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are leading some health systems to add training on old scourges that were practically wiped out by immunization campaigns and increased surveillance. "You're taught these things in medical school, and you're taught from a very academic perspective with the sense of measles was eradicated in 2000," said Nicholas Cozzi, EMS medical director at Rush. "Now we're having a resurgence, the highest in 25 years, and you might have not reviewed that since the first year of medical school," he added. "It's a new paradigm and a new normal that we have to adapt to." The big picture: The focus is particularly acute on childhood illnesses such as measles, chicken pox, invasive strep pneumoniae and pertussis, experts told Axios. Polio and diphtheria, covered by the DTap vaccine, are also a concern. An unvaccinated 10-year-old boy died in Germany after contracting diphtheria, once the leading cause of premature death of children. Rubella — a less easily transmitted infection covered by the MMR vaccine — can also be a threat, because of the way it can infect a fetus during pregnancy, said Catherine Troisi, professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and chair-elect of the International Network of Epidemiology in Policy. Vaccination rates for U.S. kindergartners were down slightly in 2023-24 for the DTap, polio, chickenpox and MMR shots, according to CDC data. Zoom in: Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said rotavirus is another old disease that's being introduced to younger doctors. "That virus dominated my residency [in the 1970s]. We had 400 kids admitted every winter," Offit said. That was before a vaccine was licensed in 2006 and virtually eliminated 70,000 hospitalizations with severe diarrhea annually, he added. "Now it's the rare child who ever gets admitted. Most pediatric residents have never seen a case of rotavirus-induced dehydration in the hospital," he said. Between the lines: Incidents such as the measles outbreak in Texas and Kennedy's recent changes to federal vaccine policy are heightening vigilance and forcing updates to physician training. It will likely take time for medical schools and residency programs to formally change their training, Troisi pointed out. Medical professionals are being advised to stay current on public health advisories, ask patients about travel histories and be on guard for less likely conditions that may present as more common ailments. They may also have to brush up on best practices for spinal taps in infants and toddlers, an invasive diagnostic tool that is seldom used today but can quickly turn up telltale signs such as inflamed membranes, said Adrianna Cadilla, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Nemours Children's Health in Orlando. "When I trained, I would hear my attendings tell us about how often they had to do lumbar punctures because that was when Hemophilus influenza type B was running rampant," Cadilla said. "I only got to do probably one every ER shift, but that was a lot in comparison to now." The hospital is using simulations to get medical students and residents more experienced in doing spinal tap on infants and wriggling older children, she said. What to watch: New outbreaks could force more on-the-fly adjustments, especially in areas with low vaccination rates and the prospect of fewer recommended childhood immunizations.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store