 [ Symptoms ] what is whooping cough [ Disease ] whooping cough is a bacterial infection that is highly contagious and it is also vaccine preventable especially in young kids and unvaccinated people it causes a severe cough which is the reason for the name whooping cough  vaccinated people can still get whooping cough though it may be less severe and the typical whoop may be absent whooping cough can be a prolonged illness and it may take many months for the cough to go away completely for this reason in china it is known as the “100 day cough ”