Explore the recorded discovery and history of Bordetella pertussis, with source links and stated limits.
B. pertussis causes whooping cough, a respiratory illness that CDC describes as beginning like a common cold before the coughing can last for weeks or months. The bacteria attach to the hair-like structures lining the airways and release toxins that damage them. Illness is often milder in people who have been vaccinated, and PHAC cites a high prevalence of asymptomatic infection among household contacts. Many babies do not cough at all and instead have life-threatening pauses in breathing. WHO notes epidemics every two to five years.
CDC records that B. pertussis was isolated in 1906 by Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou. Isolation is a separate milestone from the later formal naming of the species.
LPSN records Hemophilus pertussis Bergey et al. 1923 as the basonym, placing this organism in a different genus from the one used today.
LPSN records the current name as (Bergey et al. 1923) Moreno-López 1952, published in Microbiologia Española and placed on the Approved Lists of 1980, with type strain ATCC 9797 / NCTC 10739.
CDC records pertussis vaccine becoming available in the 1940s and a combined vaccine with diphtheria and tetanus components in 1948. Reported US cases fell sharply in the decades that followed.
These references do not establish the first person ever infected. Discovery, naming and isolation milestones do not date biological origin or a patient zero.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.