Measles and Whooping Cough Are Surging in the U.S. – Here’s One Survivor’s Story

One mother knows the dangers of measles and whooping cough all too well. Sara’s son, Henry, got sick with measles as a child before he was old enough for the MMR vaccine. Years later, after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the body’s ability to make insulin, Henry landed in the ER with whooping cough. In a post on Instagram, Sara shared Henry’s story and urged others to get vaccinated. Her post is republished here with permission.

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If you saw someone walking away from a burning wildfire, assuming it wouldn’t spread, would you stop them? Or would you hope for the best?

That’s how outbreaks happen, one small spark can turn into something uncontrollable, putting infants, pregnant women, and immunocompromised people at risk.

Henry contracted measles as a baby, just weeks before his MMR vaccine. Years later, after his type 1 diabetes diagnosis, he caught pertussis. Despite being vaccinated, his case wasn’t as severe as it could have been, but it was still dangerous. Every coughing fit triggered vomiting, which is especially risky for someone reliant on insulin. If he couldn’t keep food down, his blood sugar could drop to life-threatening levels. That Christmas was spent in the ER, hooked up to IVs, because he simply couldn’t retain food.

He could have died. From pertussis. From type 1 diabetes. From an extreme low blood sugar that we couldn’t correct in time. The what ifs have always, and will always, terrify me as a mother.

We aren’t powerless against preventable disease. But chances are, if you’re reading this, you were privileged and alive enough to be vaccinated as a child.

I understand the need to feel in control in an increasingly out-of-control world. But I’m not going to let someone perform surgery on me just because they watched a YouTube video. I trust experts, virologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, people who have spent their lives studying this.

You grew up safe because of vaccines. Choosing to vaccinate is choosing to put out the wildfire before it spreads even more.

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Measles cases in the U.S. recently reached the highest levels seen in 33 years. As of August 5, 2025, over 1,300 measles cases have been reported by 41 jurisdictions, with most cases occurring in unvaccinated children and individuals. Amid the ongoing outbreak, an adult and two children have died from measles in the U.S. this year, marking the first death from measles in an American child in more than 20 years.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is also on the rise. Since hitting a low in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, whooping cough cases have surged by more than 1,500% nationwide, with high rates reported in Hawaii, North Carolina, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Florida, Kentucky, and Louisiana. This year, whooping cough claimed the lives of two infants in both Kentucky and Louisiana as routine vaccinations decline across the nation.

Henry’s story is a stark reminder of the way that any of our families can be impacted by these diseases at any time, and the more they spread the more we are all at risk.