What is whooping cough?

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Thomas A. Clark, MD, MPH

Epidemiology

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Whooping cough is a bacterial infection that's highly contagious, and it's 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’s known as the “100 day cough.”

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