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Pertussis is very contagious, and more than 200,000 cases occurred annually in the 1940s, when whole-cell pertussis vaccine reduced annual cases to about 1000 over the ensuing 30 years. Despite excellent immunization rates, the incidence appears to have risen again. Epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now used data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System to assess the annual incidence of confirmed pertussis cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2016.
A total of 339,420 cases were reported during this period, mostly in white (88.2%) and non-Hispanic (81.3%) persons. Of these, 9.9% were hospitalized and 0.12% died. Infants (aged <1 year), a group known to …