"There continue to be peaks in reported cases of whooping cough every few years."
Young babies needed to be vaccinated at a young age and should avoid people with bad colds and coughs, people who may have pertussis--whooping cough. According to the CDC, “About half of babies who get whooping cough end up in the hospital, 1 out of 5 will get pneumonia (lung infection), and 1 out of 100 will die.” In 1900 Jules Bardot and Octave Gengou spotted the small ovoid bacterium that causes the illness in the sputum of a very sick 5-month old child. Six years later they were able to grow the microbe on the special brew they created. Called Bordetella pertussis, the microorganism was named for Jules Bordet, a prominent Belgian who won the 1919 Nobel Prize "For his discoveries relating to immunity." When a person is infected and is treated early with antibiotics like azithromycin or septra, they usually get well. If they are treated after they have been sick for a week, the medicine kills the bacteria and the person...