Pertussis, also known as the whooping cough,'s a highly contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It derived its name from the "whoop" sound made from the inspiration of air after a cough. A similar, milder disease's caused by B. parapertussis. Although many medical sources describe the whoop as "high-pitched", this's generally the case with infected babies and children only, not adults. Despite generally high coverage with the DTP and DTaP vaccines, pertussis's one of th… (More on Pertussis)