areas around Canada are seeing an increase in whooping cough CTV Scott Hurst joins us this morning uh with the details on this story we've talked a lot about whooping cough recently Scott and of course right before the school year now a new wave of it is sweeping through the nation do we have any idea of why good morning Nick and Jen it is a cyclical disease with increases every 2 to 5 years according to Public Health officials but there is a concern about waning vaccination rates in Toronto alone the city is reporting more than double the prepandemic average the nation's capital a similar story there Quebec as a province is reporting just shy of 12,000 cases so far this year and the Maritime Provinces are also seeing an alarming uptick and as you mentioned this is of particular concern right now it is putting doctors on alert and causing concern for parents and caregivers in particular as we look ahead to next week with many students and kids heading back to the classroom and so that is why right now as you mentioned we've been talking about this for quite some time as we're seeing these numbers continue to increase and how the officials believe that we are continue to see this Cura Uh current case count excuse me get worse before tapering off mhm yeah Scott we spoke about this with Dr Isaac bogush on Tuesday but maybe remind us again uh who is most at risk here and what are the symptoms of whooping cough whooping cough can occur at any age but of particular concern are it can spread quickly through a population uh that is vulnerable and the areas excuse me the populations that are of most concern concern it is most serious in babies and young children those who are not old enough to be immunized and with medical experts in many provinces saying any strain to an already overburdened Health Care system is caused for a concern whooping cough or pusis also called The 100 day cough because it can lead to significant amount of coughing for a very long time infections can usually be treated with antibiotics but vaccines that protect children are part of Canada's routine immunization program so the message to families the message to parents and caregivers is to check the vaccination status of your children and make sure everything is up today particularly as we said right now with so many children heading back to the classroom yeah definitely a cause for concern there CTV National Scott HST joining us live thank you Scott thanks a lot