here at home cases of whoop and cough have more than tripled in some provinces and Healthcare officials are concerned those numbers could Spike again as kids head back to school ctv's Adrien gbriel with what's behind the increase and how you can protect yourself a bacterial infection that packs a blistering bite you can cough and cough and at the end of it you might vomit you can have like hemorrhages uh in your eye cases of pertusus known commonly as whooping cough while rare can lead to death across Canada the virus is on the rise KC has recorded a staggering 11,670 cases so far this year compared to its annual average of 562 as of June 470 cases were reported in Ontario which is more than quadruple the average number and just last week the Brunswick declared a provincewide outbreak with 141 cases reported this year following an a aage of just 34 with cases expected to climb you can have someone who has a cold cold-like symptoms when sat protasis and they could be spreading it so I expect that when the kids go back to school there will be an increase protasis is a cyclical disease which peaks in 2 to 5e intervals According to some infectious disease specialists vaccine hesitancy isn't the only culprit but it's a factor some combination of cycles of whooping cough uh waning immunity uh vaccine status as well including people who might not be up to date on uh on vaccines Canada's routine immunization program for children does protect against whooping cough beginning at 2 months old followed by booster shots later in childhood and Adolescence the message from Health officials is simple make sure you're up to date on your vaccinations you can go to Public Health Specialists uh and public health clinics that are all over the country they can easily walk through this with you and your family this vaccine is free it's readily available and it does a good job to reduce the risk of infection the virus is most dangerous for young children especially those who haven't completed all of their vaccines though doctors are quick to point out that anyone at any age can contract this infection Adrian griel CTV News Toronto