Whooping cough cases in Arkansas reached a 15-year high in 2025 as more than 500 cases were confirmed as of Tuesday, state health officials reported.
Cases of the illness, also known also as pertussis, have been identified in many areas around the state, with over 50 counties reporting at least one case this year, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
Most of the Arkansas cases were among schoolchildren and teenagers, reported the state. At least 50 people were hospitalized and 60 percent of those were infants under age 1.
One death in the state was also related to the illness, officials said.
Although pertussis cases in the United States dropped during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—a decline the agency attributes to pandemic-era precautions such as masking and remote learning—the number of cases is rising to pre-pandemic patterns, topping 10,000 each year….