BATON ROUGE — In 2024, the number of whooping cough cases in Louisiana was 12 times as many as the year prior. Now, a quarter into 2025, the state has almost surpassed last year's total with 100 confirmed cases already.

Pertussis, or whooping cough as it's commonly referred to, is characterized by the noise patients make as they suffer through the illness.

"In 2024, during that entire year, we had 153 cases of pertussis that were detected in Louisiana. So far this year, in the first two and a half months of 2025, we have already detected 100 cases of Pertussis," Louisiana Department Health State Epidemiologist Theresa Sokol said.

If this year's trend continues, Louisiana could pass last year's case total by Easter.

"Pertussis really can have some severe complications, particularly for babies and young children that haven't received all of their recommended Pertussis vaccines," Sokol said.

Health experts said that two Louisiana infants under the age of two months died from whooping cough in the past six months. The deaths were the first from whooping cough in the state since 2018.

Sokol told WBRZ that when symptoms first develop, whooping cough is not that distinguishable from the common cold. Symptoms like a runny nose, a low-grade fever and a mild cough can occur. However, it changes as time goes on.

"It's not until about one to two weeks that later where the more severe symptoms start to begin, and that's where people start to have these coughing fits and they're uncontrolled and they're very powerful," Sokol said.

Baton Rouge Clinic pediatrician Dr. Mindy Calandro has treated whooping cough cases before. Both she and Sokol say the best way people can protect themselves and their loved ones from whooping cough is through vaccination, as both children and adults can get pertussis.

"About 30% of all babies under the age of one will have such severe symptoms that they need to be hospitalized," Sokol said.

Whooping cough is also referred to as the one-hundred-day cough because coughing fits can last for months before symptoms go away.

"For Pertussis, we start that vaccine around two months of age and then there's a dose given at two months, four months, six months. Another dose somewhere between 12 and 24 months of age, and then you have another dose around four," Calandro said.

Once a child turns 11, doctors recommend getting a whooping cough booster vaccination. Doctors say adults who will be around children, especially newborns, should also have a booster because it protects those most susceptible whooping cough, infants under two months old.

"We do that through something called cocooning. Which is why we encourage all pregnant women to get their Pertussis booster shot during pregnancy and we encourage anyone who's going to be around the newborn," Calandro said. "We know that with the pertussis vaccine, their immunity wanes over time, so that's why these boosters are so important."