Louisiana and Canada, two regions separated by thousands of miles, are facing eerily similar public health crises in 2025: the resurgence of once-controlled, vaccine-preventable diseases. In Louisiana, a whooping cough outbreak has spiraled into the state’s worst in 35 years, while Canada stands on the brink of losing its global status as a measles-free country after more than a quarter-century. Both outbreaks, fueled by declining vaccination rates and delayed public health responses, have led to tragic consequences—especially for infants, the most vulnerable among us.
Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can be particularly dangerous for infants. According to NPR, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that pregnant women receive the Tdap vaccine in their third trimester to provide newborns with immunity, since babies cannot be vaccinated until they are two months old. Yet, this year in Louisiana, the system designed to protect these infants faltered.
Louisiana health officials first noticed a substantial uptick in whooping cough cases in September 2024. By late January 2025, two infants had died—one of them under two months old, too young to have received the vaccine. Dr. Madison Flake, a pediatric resident in Baton Rouge, described the harrowing experience of caring for a baby in the intensive care unit: “He would have these bouts of very dramatic coughing spells. He would stop breathing for several seconds to almost a minute.”
Despite the mounting danger, the Louisiana Department of Health waited two months after the infant deaths to urge the public to talk to their doctors about vaccination via social media. Even more time passed before the department issued a statewide health alert to physicians, a press release, or held a press conference. According to Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, such delays are highly unusual. “Particularly for these childhood diseases, we usually jump all over these,” he told NPR. “These are preventable diseases and preventable deaths.”
Time is of the essence during infectious disease outbreaks. Dr. Abraar Karan of Stanford University, who has worked on COVID-19 and mpox responses, emphasized: “Time is perhaps one of the most important currencies that you have.” Without prompt alerts, opportunities to prevent further infections slip away.
Complicating matters, Louisiana’s state surgeon general, Ralph Abraham, took a controversial step on February 13, 2025: he sent a memo to staff ending the general promotion of vaccines and community vaccine events. This decision came just hours after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his anti-vaccine activism, was confirmed as the new U.S. health and human services secretary. In a public memo, Abraham criticized what he called a “one-size-fits-all, collectivist mentality” in public health vaccine recommendations. He has previously called COVID-19 vaccines “dangerous” and is a vocal supporter of Kennedy.
It wasn’t until four days after Abraham’s memo that the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed the two infant deaths in response to a media inquiry. No public alerts or press releases followed immediately. Only in March 2025, after NPR and KFF Health News pressed for answers, did the department begin to communicate more openly, issuing its first social media posts about the outbreak and offering interviews to journalists.
By May 2025—at least three months after the second infant death—the health department finally issued an official alert to physicians, released a press statement, and held a press conference. By that point, 42 people had been hospitalized in the outbreak, three-quarters of whom were not up to date on their immunizations. More than two-thirds of those hospitalized were babies under age one, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
As summer wore on, the outbreak only worsened. By September 20, Louisiana had recorded 387 whooping cough cases in 2025, shattering the previous 35-year high of 214 cases set in 2013. Yet, there were no further public communications from the health department for months, as hospitalizations continued to climb. It wasn’t until September 30 that the state surgeon general posted on X (formerly Twitter), acknowledging for the first time that one of the infant deaths had occurred in late 2024 and recommending the pertussis vaccine.
Experts argue that the state’s slow response likely exacerbated the crisis. “Because then what we see is this train wreck thereafter, of like an insanely large outbreak, a lot of hospitalizations,” Dr. Karan told NPR. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, former health secretary for Maryland, stressed the importance of using such tragedies as opportunities to educate the public about vaccines: “The risk of pertussis is always there, but when you have two infant deaths it’s a really good opportunity to communicate that this is a real threat to the health of children.”
Meanwhile, Canada’s battle with measles paints a parallel picture. Since October 27, 2024, a measles outbreak originating in New Brunswick has spread nationwide, infecting more than 5,000 people. Two infants, one in Ontario and another in Alberta, contracted measles in the womb and died after birth, reported The Canadian Press.
Canada had eliminated measles in 1998 and maintained its measles-free status for over 25 years—meaning any new cases were linked to travel, not community transmission. But the current outbreak, which has persisted for a full year, puts that status in jeopardy. The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) is set to review Canada’s measles elimination status in November 2025.
Experts attribute the resurgence to declining vaccination rates, which have been driven by misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, distrust of science, and disruptions to routine immunizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, vice-president of infectious diseases and vaccination programs at the Public Health Agency of Canada, explained that regaining elimination status requires demonstrating no ongoing transmission for at least 12 months and maintaining 95% vaccination coverage. “You have to demonstrate that the country has no ongoing transmission for a period of at least 12 months and you also have to show that all your systems are working well enough to be able to sustain that afterwards,” she told The Canadian Press.
Canada is not alone in this struggle. Venezuela and Brazil lost their measles elimination status in 2018 and 2019, respectively, but regained it after about five years through sustained public health efforts. Dr. Nicole Basta, an epidemiologist at McGill University, called the current situation “a wake-up call for all of us,” emphasizing the need to rebuild trust in vaccines and ensure communities have reliable information.
Healthcare workers in Alberta, where the outbreak continues, have found renewed purpose in vaccine advocacy. Dr. Cora Constantinescu, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, reflected on the surprise of facing such a massive measles outbreak: “I did not think that we were going to have such a massive measles outbreak in my lifetime, if you’d asked me that 10 years ago. Now I’m looking at all these vaccine-preventable diseases and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re probably coming and we need to be prepared.’”
The dual crises in Louisiana and Canada serve as sobering reminders of what’s at stake when public health systems falter and vaccine confidence wanes. As both regions reckon with the consequences, experts agree: rebuilding trust, improving communication, and boosting immunization rates are the keys to halting these outbreaks and preventing future tragedies.