What is that Cough?

Highly contagious whooping cough joins flu, colds, and COVID in Cape Cod's winter air. 

What is making people sick this winter?

24 January 2025 - WELLFLEET, MA The cold and flu season has arrived with a vengeance and the health community is on high alert - including responding to a state advisory on the highly contagious whooping cough.

What is whooping cough?

As cold and season bears down full force on the Cape, the state has issued an advisory for whooping cough, a highly contagious bacterial respiratory disease that appears to be spiking this season.  While many of its symptoms mirror colds, flu, and COVID its distinctive the cough with what health care providers call a "barky" sound make it stand out.

Whooping cough - also referred to as pertussis -  has increased in Massachusetts and now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, especially among adolescents. In August the Commonwealth issued a clinical advisory and last month Barnstable County issued an alert, noting this was already the worst season for whooping cough in more than a decade and six times higher than last year.

Why is whooping cough of concern?

Whooping cough is extremely contagious and also contagious over a long period of time. The infectious period can begin when symptoms first start and continue for as long as 21 days.

According to Dr. Constant from Outer Cape Health Services, the sound of the whooping cough cough raises a red flag and indicates that not only the immediate patient but also the entire inner circle family should receive antibiotics to prevent wider disease spread.  She also  also recommends five days of isolation to prevent transmission.

What about COVID?

Constant also pointed out that COVID hasn't disappeared either,  although the "new normal" sees COVID as a less-scary disease with lower death rates and somewhat milder symptoms.  "We should accept that COVID is part of the landscape just like influenza and other respiratory disease" she said.

Hiding away all winter doesn't solve the problem. Health care providers encourage Cape Codder to go forth and interact, but to remember the basics of prevention.  Constant reminds us that prevention starts at home - and with your hands.

The lessons of the pandemic shouldn't be to hide away from all human contact, but to remember to wash hands thoroughly, to cough in the elbow and not into a room at large, and to stay home when sick to avoid spreading disease.