[TRIGGER WARNING: see below]  Whooping cough, that terrible childhood scourge, has been making an alarming comeback due to lapses in vaccination coverage across the globe. And in this episode, we’ll tell you why exactly its return is a cause for concern. From the devastation it wreaks on the body to the untold tragedy of past epidemics, pertussis is a dreaded disease that was nearly relegated to the past thanks to the amazing efforts of three incredible researchers, Pearl Kendrick, Grace Eldering, and Loney Gordon. But as the provider of our firsthand account illustrates, pertussis is still very much present today. We are joined by the incredible Catherine Hughes, who does us the honor of sharing her story about her son Riley and her efforts to raise awareness about the importance of childhood vaccinations.

Read more about the Light for Riley campaign and the Immunisation Foundation of Australia to see the hugely important work being done.

Trigger Warning: The firsthand account of this episode features the death of an infant. If you do not wish to hear this, skip to 5:10.

History	Biology
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Kinch, Michael. Between Hope and Fear: A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity. Pegasus Books, 2018.	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Pertussis” from Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. Hamborsky J, Kroger A, Wolfe S, eds. 13th ed. Washington D.C. Public Health Foundation, 2015.
Kuchar, Ernest, et al. “Pertussis: history of the disease and current prevention failure.” Pulmonary Dysfunction and Disease. Springer, Cham, 2016. 77-82.	WHO. “Pertussis.” Vaccine Preventable Disease Surveillance Standards, 5 Sept. 2018.
Liang, Yan, et al. “Chao Yuanfang: imperial physician of the Sui Dynasty and an early pertussis observer?.” Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Vol. 3. No. 1. Oxford University Press, 2016.	Sealey, Katie L., Thomas Belcher, and Andrew Preston. “Bordetella pertussis epidemiology and evolution in the light of pertussis resurgence.” Infection, Genetics and Evolution 40 (2016): 136-143.
Radbill, Samuel X. “Whooping cough in fact and fancy.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 13 (1943): 33.	https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/downloads/pertuss-surv-report-2018-508.pdf
Sajadi, Mohammad M., et al. “The “100 Days Cough” Was Not Originally Whooping Cough.” Open forum infectious diseases. Vol. 3. No. 2. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Watt, Robert. Treatise on the History, Nature, and Treatment of Chincough: including a variety of cases and dissections. To which is subjoined, an inquiry into the relative mortality of the principal diseases of children, and the numbers who have died under ten years of age, in Glasgow, during the last thirty years. John Smith & Son, 1813.
Weston, Robert. “Whooping cough: a brief history to the 19th century.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 29.2 (2012): 329-349.
Kenneth, F. Kiple. “The Cambridge world history of human disease.” CUP, Cambridge (1993): 871.

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