Rosemary Westwood, WWNO
When there’s an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable illness, state well being officers sometimes take sure steps to alert residents and challenge public updates concerning the rising menace. That’s commonplace observe, public well being and infectious illness consultants informed KFF Health News and NPR. The objective is to maintain as many different weak individuals as attainable from getting sick and to remind the general public about the advantages of vaccinations.
But in Louisiana this 12 months, public well being officers appeared to haven’t adopted that playbook in the course of the state’s worst whooping cough outbreak in 35 years.
Whooping cough, additionally known as pertussis, is a extremely contagious, vaccine-preventable illness that’s notably harmful for the youngest infants. It could cause vomiting and hassle respiration, and severe infections can result in pneumonia, seizures, and, not often, demise.
Madison Flake, a pediatric resident in Baton Rouge, cared for a child who was hospitalized throughout this 12 months’s outbreak. Less than 2 months outdated, he was despatched to the intensive care unit.
“He would have these bouts of very dramatic coughing spells,” Flake stated. “He would stop breathing for several seconds to almost a minute.”
Infants usually are not eligible for his or her first pertussis vaccine till they’re 2 months old, however they will purchase immunity if the mom is immunized whereas pregnant.
By late January, two infants had died in Louisiana.
But the Louisiana Department of Health waited two months to ship out a social media put up suggesting individuals discuss to their docs about getting vaccinated. The division took even longer to challenge a statewide health alert to physicians, ship out a press launch, or maintain a information convention.
That lag will not be typical, in accordance with Georges Benjamin, the manager director of the American Public Health Association.
“Particularly for these childhood diseases, we usually jump all over these,” stated Benjamin, a doctor who has led well being departments in Maryland and Washington, D.C. “These are preventable diseases and preventable deaths.”
Because infectious illnesses unfold exponentially, if officers don’t alert the general public shortly, they lose a key probability to stop additional infections, stated Abraar Karan, an teacher at Stanford University who has labored on covid and mpox outbreaks.
“Time is perhaps one of the most important currencies that you have,” he added.
General Promotion of Vaccines Banned
Because pertussis vaccine immunity wanes over time, instances can ebb and stream. But in September 2024, Louisiana well being officers began seeing a “substantial” improve in whooping cough instances, a part of a national trend.
In late January, physicians at one Louisiana hospital warned their colleagues that two infants had died within the outbreak.
On Feb. 13, the state’s surgeon common, Ralph Abraham, despatched a memo to workers ending the general promotion of vaccines and neighborhood vaccine occasions.
He despatched that e mail a couple of hours after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, gained Senate affirmation as the brand new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Also that day, Abraham posted a public memo on the state well being division’s web site. In it, he stated public well being has overstepped with vaccine suggestions, pushed by “a one-size-fits-all, collectivist mentality.” Abraham has known as covid vaccines “dangerous” and been a vocal supporter of Kennedy.
Four days later, in response to a request from WVUE Fox 8 News in New Orleans, the Louisiana Department of Health in an e mail confirmed the deaths of two infants from whooping cough for the primary time. WVUE published the news on Feb. 20.
But Louisiana’s well being division despatched out no alerts, in accordance with a assessment of exterior and inside communications by NPR and KFF Health News.
Over the subsequent month, two extra infants have been hospitalized for whooping cough, in accordance with inside well being division emails obtained via a public information request.
In March, after inquiries from NPR and KFF Health News concerning the rising variety of pertussis instances, the division put out its first social media communications concerning the outbreak and supplied interviews to different journalists.
Then on May 1 — not less than three months after the second toddler demise — the well being division issued what seems to be its first and up to now solely official alert to physicians. It put out its first press release the subsequent day after which held a information convention about pertussis on May 14.
By then, 42 individuals had been hospitalized for whooping cough because the outbreak started, three-quarters of whom weren’t updated on their whooping cough immunizations, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
More than two-thirds of these hospitalized have been infants underneath the age of 1.
Throughout the summer time, pertussis instances continued to climb in Louisiana. But there have been no additional public communications from the state well being division.
NPR and KFF Health News contacted the division for touch upon Sept. 25. Emma Herrock, a spokesperson, didn’t reply particular questions concerning the lack of communications however referred to a Sept. 30 post on X by the state surgeon common.
In the put up, Abraham stated the division “consistently reported cases of pertussis and provided guidance to help residents stay protected” in 2025. He known as the pertussis vaccine “one of the least controversial” and stated he recommends it to his sufferers.
The X put up included a year-by-year graphic of pertussis instances that omitted 2024 and 2025. The put up additionally offered a extra particular timeframe for when the toddler deaths occurred — one in late 2024 and the opposite in early 2025.
A ‘Train Wreck’ of Cases
Louisiana ought to have began warning the general public inside days of the primary toddler’s demise as a substitute of ready months, stated Stanford’s Karan.
“At minimum,” he stated, “it should be like heavy promotion of: ‘Hey, infants are at high risk. They get infected by people who have waning immunity. If you haven’t gotten vaccinated, get vaccinated. If you have these symptoms, get tested.’”
Deaths from a vaccine-preventable sickness are tragic, however they will additionally function a possibility to coach the general public about the advantages of vaccines and attempt to save lives, stated Joshua Sharfstein, a former Maryland well being secretary and now a professor on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“The risk of pertussis is always there, but when you have two infant deaths it’s a really good opportunity to communicate that this is a real threat to the health of children,” Sharfstein stated.
Karan stated that by not appearing extra shortly, the Louisiana Department of Health could have set itself up for a worse outbreak.
“Because then what we see is this train wreck thereafter, of like an insanely large outbreak, a lot of hospitalizations,” he stated.
The Outbreak Continued
As of Sept. 20, the latest date for which information is on the market, Louisiana had counted 387 cases of whooping cough in 2025, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In information going again to 1990, the previous high was 214 instances, in 2013.
Until the Sept. 30 put up on X, the Louisiana Department of Health didn’t seem to place out any public communications about pertussis over the previous 4 months, although hospitalizations continued and case ranges surpassed the 2013 ranges.
The well being division must be responding aggressively and persistently, stated Joseph Bocchini, the president of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Health officers ought to make sure that “people are updated on a regular basis and reminded of what needs to be done,” he stated. “Get your vaccines. Moms, if you’re pregnant, get vaccinated. And if you have a cough illness, see your doctor.”
Benjamin, with the American Public Health Association, stated the continued objective of public well being communication is to stop the subsequent hospitalization or demise.
“The bottom line is, it’s not too late,” he stated. “It’s not too late to be much more aggressive and proactive about dealing with pertussis.”
This article is from a partnership that features WWNO, NPR, and KFF Health News.
