Whooping cough is making a surge in Canada at a time when schools are reopening and ahead of the fall respiratory illness season.
Some provinces — Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick in particular — have reported sharp increases in whooping cough cases compared with pre-pandemic averages.
Whooping cough, which is a bacterial illness, “can be seasonal” as it peaks in late summer and early fall, said Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Toronto.With kids returning to school, experts warn that cases could rise even higher.
“I think that now that kids are going back to school and some of the kids are not completely vaccinated, I expect to see an increase,” Banerji said in an interview with Media on Tuesday.
“We’ve already had huge numbers, four times the normal rate of whooping cough that we normally see across Canada and really around the world, but I think that might even go up as kids go back to school.”
Dr. Earl Rubin, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Montreal, said schools can play a role in whooping cough spread and “certainly increase the risks of transmission.”
Like respiratory viruses, such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19, bacterial infections, like whooping cough, are more common during the fall and winter months, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital.
So, how can you tell the difference?
What is whooping cough?
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection.
The bacteria that cause whooping cough spread easily from person to person through the air, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).When a person who has whooping cough sneezes or coughs, they can release small particles with the bacteria in them, and other people can then breathe in the bacteria, the CDC states on its website.