THERE were 3,668 recorded deaths from whooping cough in the United States in 1941.1 Of these, 2,572 occurred in children under 1 year, and 1,048 between 1 and 3 years. Ninety-four per cent of the deaths, therefore, were in children less than 3 years old. The incidence of the disease in the Greater New York area has been fairly constant over a period of years, about 5,700 cases being reported by the New York City Health Department yearly in the years 1940 to 1945 inclusive, with a yearly average of 45 deaths. Sixty-seven per cent of these deaths occurred in children under 1 year of age (table 1).
In the past eight years the case fatality for patients ill with whooping cough at the Willard Parker Hospital has been equal to or above the combined total deaths due to measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria. The Willard Parker Hospital is