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.”
Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory infection with symptoms like extreme, uncontrollable coughing that causes shortness of breath, he said. It usually starts with a runny nose and congestion that manifests into a violent, uncontrollable cough that often sounds like a “whoop,” the state health officer explained.
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.
“That cough can hang around for a very long time, and the longer they have it untreated, the more dangerous,” Edney warned.
Antibiotics can treat pertussis and slow the spread of the disease to others, he said. Coughing can be particularly dangerous for infants as it can cause breathing complications, he reported.
“A lot of times, you know, babies don’t cough; they just stop breathing,” the state health officer said.
Edney said the best way to prevent pertussis is to get vaccinated against it and keep up with booster shots every 10 years through the Tdap shot, which is available for those ages 7 and older and also offers protection against tetanus and diphtheria. Since infants cannot get vaccines until they are two months old, the state health officer said it is especially important for older children and adults to get vaccinated to protect the smallest Mississippians.
“There are some vaccines that are fully protective—like the MMR, measles, mumps, rubella—once you’re vaccinated or you have the illness, then you have personal, lifelong immunity,” he said. “Then we have other vaccines that are more temporary, like tetanus, that’s why you have to get a tetanus booster every 10 years—very protective, but if you don’t stay up to day, then your immunity is going to wane.”
Pregnant women should get the pertussis vaccine or booster, usually offered in conjunction with tetanus and diphtheria as the Tdap shot, between the 27th and 36th week of pregnancy, Edney said. He encouraged families to keep newborns at home and away from many visitors, especially sick people, during the baby’s first six to eight weeks of life. After two months, infants can receive the DTaP shot, which protects against whooping cough for children under 7.
“Pertussis falls into the category of vaccines that’s extremely helpful but not fully protective, so we need to keep our immunity rates as best we can to protect the little ones,” he said.
More information on vaccinations and how to get them is available on the Mississippi Department of Health’s website.
