Whooping cough cases surging in Quebec: public health

Cases of whooping cough are surging in Quebec, and the number of cases during the current outbreak is much higher than the few hundred seen in the average year.

Quebec public health director Luc Boileau said Quebec was expecting this epidemic since whooping cough is cyclical, with peaks every two to five years.

"Already almost more than 13,000 cases of the whooping cough that we had since the beginning of 2024," said Boileau.

Boileau said there's been almost 90 hospitalizations this year.

Infants younger than three months old make up most of these cases.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Jesse Papenburg explained that the disease appears like a cold at first.

"A runny nose, a little bit of a cough, maybe a little bit of a fever, sore throat," said Papenburg.

However, the illness, also called pertussis, progresses to uncomfortable coughing fits.

"They can have a characteristic whoop in between them, and this can last for a couple of weeks or longer," said Papenburg. "Then we go into the convalescent phase where we develop a chronic cough that could last for several weeks."

The best way to prevent whooping cough is to get vaccinated.

"The most important is for the kids, very young kids, babies under one-year-old to be vaccinated because the most risk they will have is essentially linked to their age," said Boileau.

Expectant mothers are also urged to get the vaccine.

"It will protect the kids for the first two months," said Boileau, who explained health measures linked to the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced whooping cough cases in 2020 and 2021.

Papenburg said the higher case count is also due to improvements made in terms of testing.

"Our laboratories are better equipped with more instruments in more labs across the province to be able to do PCR tests for whooping cough," he said.

The Health Ministry said cases are heading downward.

There are currently no plans for a large-scale pertussis vaccination campaign in schools.