Whooping cough (pertussis) in young infants

Whooping cough is a very contagious infection that causes coughing fits. It can be especially serious in babies who have not had the vaccine. In babies the early signs can be different: they may cough only a little or not at all, and may stop breathing for a short time. Vaccines are the best way to prevent it.

Also called Whooping cough · Pertussis

Condition
In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

MedlinePlus descriptions (public domain). The page records that about half of babies under age one who get whooping cough need care in the hospital, without a source for the figure. Maternal Tdap in pregnancy is the intervention with evidence on this atlas (a US case-control evaluation in infants younger than 2 months).

Recognition

Early symptoms in babies can differ from older people: they may cough only a little, may not cough at all, and may have apnea (MedlinePlus).

Assessment

MedlinePlus lists a medical history, a physical exam, a lab test of mucus from the back of the throat, a blood test and a chest x-ray.

Burden

Burden Evidence stage not applicable Certainty not assessed

MedlinePlus says whooping cough is very contagious and can be especially serious in babies who have not yet had the vaccine, and that about half of babies under age one who get whooping cough need care in the hospital. It says the early symptoms in babies can be different: they may only cough a little or not at all, and may have apnea, a pause in breathing. Vaccines are the best way to prevent whooping cough; the two vaccines named for the United States are DTaP and Tdap.
Applies to Child
- Babies who have not yet had the whooping cough vaccine, and babies under one year of age who get whooping cough, as the MedlinePlus topic words them.
- Home and hospital care; the page mentions hospital care for about half of babies under one year who get whooping cough.
- Not stated (US government health information site)
- Babies under one year of age
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
Follow-up Not applicable (health topic summary)
Certainty method
Not assessed

Limitations
A plain-language summary. The page gives no source for the hospital figure and no vaccine schedule. Tdap in pregnancy is on its own page.

Last checked
2026-10-15

Next evidence check due
Not scheduled
Sources and citations (6)
1. Supports Whooping Cough (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date.
  
  Locator
  Summary, What is whooping cough?, paragraph 2, sentences 1 and 2
  
  How it applies
  MedlinePlus health topic summary.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-15T13:49:54Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  4e9f8b121a43b498fb61420c5e8e1e4cab021753a1474a43d2c0999f8e1cc84f
  
  Reuse basis
  MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.
2. Supports Whooping Cough (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date.
  
  Locator
  Summary, What is whooping cough?, paragraph 2, sentence 3
  
  How it applies
  MedlinePlus health topic summary.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-15T13:49:54Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  4e9f8b121a43b498fb61420c5e8e1e4cab021753a1474a43d2c0999f8e1cc84f
  
  Reuse basis
  MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.
3. Supports Whooping Cough (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date.
  
  Locator
  Summary, What are the symptoms?, paragraph 3
  
  How it applies
  MedlinePlus health topic summary.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-15T13:49:54Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  4e9f8b121a43b498fb61420c5e8e1e4cab021753a1474a43d2c0999f8e1cc84f
  
  Reuse basis
  MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.
4. Supports Whooping Cough (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date.
  
  Locator
  Summary, What are the symptoms?, paragraph 3, sentence 3
  
  How it applies
  MedlinePlus health topic summary.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-15T13:49:54Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  4e9f8b121a43b498fb61420c5e8e1e4cab021753a1474a43d2c0999f8e1cc84f
  
  Reuse basis
  MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.
5. Supports Whooping Cough (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date.
  
  Locator
  Summary, Can whooping cough be prevented?, paragraph 1, sentence 1
  
  How it applies
  MedlinePlus health topic summary.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-15T13:49:54Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  4e9f8b121a43b498fb61420c5e8e1e4cab021753a1474a43d2c0999f8e1cc84f
  
  Reuse basis
  MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.
6. Supports Whooping Cough (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The page carries no edition date.
  
  Locator
  Summary, Can whooping cough be prevented?, paragraph 1, sentence 2
  
  How it applies
  MedlinePlus health topic summary.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-15T13:49:54Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  4e9f8b121a43b498fb61420c5e8e1e4cab021753a1474a43d2c0999f8e1cc84f
  
  Reuse basis
  MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

Clinical links

Each link reports what one cited claim says about one population. "Evaluated for" means studied, not shown to work. These links do not show that anything is effective or right for you.

Claim, not a settled fact Evaluated for this: Tdap vaccination in pregnancy to protect the infant from whooping cough (Evaluated for, seen from the other side)
Applies to Newborn
- Infants younger than 2 months with pertussis (cases, cough onset 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014) and hospital-matched controls chosen from birth certificates, from six US Emerging Infections Program states. Mothers counted as vaccinated if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery; the abstract reports 240 cases and 535 controls.
- Population-based case-control evaluation in six states with mother interviews and provider-verified immunisation records.
- Six US Emerging Infections Program states (the abstract does not name them)
- Infants younger than 2 months
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
Follow-up Not applicable (case-control design)
A US case-control evaluation compared 240 infants younger than 2 months who had pertussis, with cough onset from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014 in six Emerging Infections Program states, with 535 hospital-matched controls. Mothers were counted as vaccinated during pregnancy if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery. In the third trimester, 17 case mothers (7.1%) and 90 control mothers (16.8%) had received Tdap. The multivariable vaccine effectiveness for Tdap given in the third trimester was 77.7% (95% confidence interval 48.3% to 90.4%), and 90.5% (95% confidence interval 65.2% to 97.4%) against cases that were hospitalised.
Limitations. Only the PubMed abstract was read; the full text was not. This is an observational case-control design in which effectiveness is estimated as (1 minus the odds ratio) times 100, so it cannot show cause the way a randomised trial can. The PMC copy is not in the Open Access subset and was not read. The authors conclude that vaccination during pregnancy is an effective way to protect infants in the early months of life.

Record details

Record id: maternal:infant-pertussis
Content hash: 5355fed519fda5df6d96e87ecdd488bddf4bdd824fb724c71a056b325cadd5ba