Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a surge in whooping cough cases, bringing us back to pre-pandemic patterns for the disease, which is also known as pertussis.
We’ve seen about five times as many whooping cough cases this year as we had by the same time in 2023. That uptick is even sharper in some regions in particular.
Whooping cough, which is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, is highly contagious, even when an infected person's symptoms are mild. Infants are especially vulnerable to serious illness.
Researchers studied hundreds of microbial strains in samples taken from urban surfaces and the skin of city-dwellers in Hong Kong. Some of the strains featured genes that allow them to metabolize compounds found in cleaning products.
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