Mississippi Baby Dies of Whooping Cough, the State's First Pertussis Death in 13 Years

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Source: Mississippi Free Press

A baby in Mississippi has died of whooping cough, the Mississippi State Department of Health announced on Monday, marking the state’s first whooping cough death in 13 years. The infant was less than two months old and was not old enough to receive the pertussis vaccine, the agency said.

Mississippi has seen 115 pertussis cases from Jan. 1, 2025, to Sept. 29. Through all of 2024, the state had only detected 49 whooping cough cases, MSDH reported. Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said that Mississippi’s last whooping cough deaths were in 2008 and 2012.

“We do believe that declining vaccination rates are impacting this,” he told reporters on Sept. 29. “Mississippi, as you know, scores very high with our rate of vaccination for our infants and school-aged children, but we don’t score nearly as well with adults. And so, our concern is that adult Mississippians are not maintaining the pertussis immunity, which puts our babies at risk.”

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Pertussis could linger anywhere between two to eight weeks in a person if left untreated, Edney said. In adults, pertussis is typically mild, and he said people usually think they have a common cold. People should quarantine for anywhere between six to 21 days if they have pertussis, he said.

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Read more: https://www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-baby-dies-of-whooping-cough-the-states-first-pertussis-death-in-13-years/