Declining vaccination rates in Alberta’s South Zone are considered a major contributor to the current whooping cough outbreak

This year alone, 304 Albertans have contracted pertussis, better known as whooping cough. And 279 of those cases are in the province's South Zone.

Declining vaccination rates in the South Zone are seen as a big driver behind the outbreak.

"What we have seen in general across Canada and in Alberta, and in particular in places in southern Alberta, are those vaccine rates have dropped over the last 10 years," says Dr. Craig Jenne, PhD, professor of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary and member of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases.

In 2022, 70.7 per cent of children across Alberta were vaccinated against whooping cough.

But in the South Zone, just 58.1 per cent of children were vaccinated. Read more.