Because whooping cough (pertussis) is almost as contagious as
measles (affecting ~12-17 individuals with each case),
clinicians are required to report cases of this bacterial
respiratory tract infection to the state's department of public
health. In 2010, California had the highest number of cases of
whooping cough in 60 years. A new study scheduled for
publication in The Journal of Pediatrics describes the 2010
whooping cough epidemic and details strategies to decrease the
incidence of this infection. Kathleen Winter, MPH, and
colleagues from the California Department of Public Health
(CDPH) evaluated 9,154 cases of whooping cough with onset
between January 1 and December 31, 2010; 809 cases were
hospitalized and 10 resulted in death. All deaths and most of
the hospitalized cases (62%) were in infants less than 3 months
of age, and infants less than 6 months of age had the highest
disease rates. In the population aged less than 6 months,
Hispanics had the highest incidence of whooping cough. However,
in chil