Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a serious illness. It’s highly contagious, can leave you with a hacking cough for months, and is especially dangerous to babies. The CDC reports that cases are on the rise this year.

Five times as many cases of the potentially fatal illness have been reported so far in 2024, compared with the same time last year.

Whooping cough cases are continuing to rise in the United States, with new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that there are five times as many cases this year than at this point in time last year.

Whooping Cough has been identified in a few students at South Dakota State University. In an email to students and faculty, the South Dakota Department of Health said they found “a few cases” at the school.

Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

At least two students have come down with the highly contagious infection at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, and students were potentially exposed at Analy High in Sebastopol.

Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious-disease specialist at Memorial Hermann, joins Houston's Morning Show to talk about the rising number of whooping cough cases across the country.