Ontario saw the highest number of whooping cough cases in the last 17 years: report

The number of whooping cough cases in Ontario this year has reached a level that hasn't been seen in 17 years.

The number of whooping cough cases in Ontario this year has reached a level that hasn’t been seen in 17 years.

In November, Public Health Ontario (PHO) published its findings on pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, delving into its activity by exploring case characteristics, counts and incidence rates.

Pertussis is a bacterial infection that attacks your respiratory tract with infections leading to chronic coughing, potentially bringing on symptoms like burst blood vessels or even broken ribs in children. It's typically seen as a cough with a high-pitched whoop at the end, Dr. Allan Grill, chief of family medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital, told CTV News Toronto.

"A lot of people described episodes of coughing, so much so that at the end they have vomiting," Grill explained in an interview Friday.

It's the type of infection that needs to get diagnosed relatively quickly when symptoms start, he added.

"The earlier we treat the pertussis, the better," Grill said. "If a young infant is having breath-holding spells or looks like they have trouble breathing, you can't mess around. You have to seek care immediately because that population can get very sick from pertussis."

As of the date of publication, on Nov. 7, the provincial health agency says there have been a total of 1,475 cases – confirmed and probable – seen in Ontario this year, with a rate of around nine cases for every 100,000 people. Both the case count and rate are the highest the PHO has observed since 2007.