Pertussis diagnoses among service members and other beneficiaries of the U.S. Military Health System, January 2005-June 2012.

Pertussis ("whooping cough") is a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Individuals at highest risk are infants and unvaccinated children; however, there have been recent increases in incidence among adolescent and young adult populations in the United States. During the surveillance period, there were 476 confirmed and 3,073 probable cases of pertussis among U.S. military members and other beneficiaries of the U.S. Military Health System. Among service members there were 77 and 13 confirmed cases in active and reserve component members, respectively. In comparison, infants and children aged 15 years and younger accounted for over half of all confirmed cases (n=244). Several spatiotemporal clusters of pertussis among military healthcare beneficiaries were associated with outbreaks in adjacent non-military communities, particularly in five states (California, Texas, Florida, Washington, and New York); one cluster occurred in a military community in Okinawa, Japan.