Suppressing Whooping Cough

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Whooping cough is caused by bacteria. However, it is the toxins produced by the bacteria, rather than the bacteria themselves, that primarily cause symptoms. The same is true of tetanus and diphtheria. Currently, all three of these diseases can be addressed by a single, combined vaccine. The museum’s collections contain objects that document the unique development of the whooping cough vaccine.

Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can last for weeks or months. It is usually spread by coughing and sneezing. Pertussis toxins damage the airways and cause them to swell. Infected people experience severe coughing fits (sometimes coughing hard enough to crack ribs), have trouble inhaling, and are susceptible to pneumonia. The disease is extremely dangerous for young children: before the pertussis vaccine became routine, the disease killed 9,000 American children each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The museum’s collections document the methods Americans used to treat whooping cough, as well as to mitigate the disease’s spread within a community, before a vaccine became available. Many early “patent” medicines claimed to ease the symptoms of whooping cough, or even cure it. Often, whooping cough was only one of the many potentially deadly respiratory diseases that the balms, tonics, or inhalants claimed to address.

Vapo-Cresolene Vaporizer, ca 1910s – 1930s

Vapo-Cresolene Vaporizer, ca 1910s – 1930s. The product box advertises the vaporizer as a treatment for whooping cough. The Cresolene liquid was poured into the device’s top dish, and slowly vaporized by the kerosene flame below. The packaging claims that the resulting fumes had antiseptic properties beneficial to inflamed lungs.

The very contagious nature of the disease meant that communities had few options but to quarantine households with members infected by whooping cough. Quarantine signs in the museum’s collection document the knowledge and fear of the particularly harsh toll that the disease takes on young children.

Whooping Cough Quarantine Sign, Pennsylvania, ca after-1923.
Pertussis Serobacterin No. 4, ca 1920s

Left: Whooping Cough Quarantine Sign, Pennsylvania, after-1923. Right: Pertussis Serobacterin No. 4, ca 1920s. The Mulford Company’s Pertussis Serobacterin Mixed bacterial “vaccine” was a cocktail of bacterial strains that were often found in people with whooping cough. This was one of many “bacterial vaccines” or “bacterins” produced during the 1920s that claimed to prevent pertussis or influenza, but were found to have an unpredictable or unproven immunizing effect.

The bacterial cause of pertussis, Bordetella pertussis, was isolated in 1906. Whooping cough caused so many fatalities that finding a vaccine was a national priority. Like influenza, pertussis infection can be accompanied by dangerous secondary infections, which further complicated researchers’ understanding of the disease. During the 1920s and 1930s, many vaccines were tested, with limited success. A vaccine that could be proven effective, and did not produce unacceptable side effects, was elusive. The museum's collection contains examples of these early whooping cough vaccines that proved less than ideal.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, various pertussis vaccines were developed that came into common use. Whole-cell vaccines (which used the entire pertussis organism) became the prevalent variety in the U.S. These whole-cell vaccines represented a compromise: they achieved sufficient efficacy in priming the body to recognize and disable the pertussis toxins; but they retained potential side effects, such as low-level fever and soreness at the injection site, caused by those same toxins present with the bacteria in the vaccine. The significant benefits of the vaccine were judged to outweigh the side effects. Indeed, the World Health Organization reports whooping cough vaccination campaigns during the 1950s and 1960s helped achieve a 90% decrease in pertussis incidence and mortality. The museum’s collections contain many examples of pertussis vaccines from this period.

Pertussis Vaccine, ca 1952

This vaccine from Eli Lilly & Co. from ca 1952 contains “25,000 million killed H. Pertussis bacteria per cc.” Many pertussis vaccines in the museum’s collection are labeled with the previous name for the bacterium: Haemophilus pertussis.

In the 1990s, safety concerns stemming from the side effects of whole-cell pertussis vaccines led the U.S. to switch to acellular vaccines. Acellular vaccines use only specific components of the bacterium and/or inactivated toxins.

The current whooping cough vaccines are unusual – they are effective, but not as predictably protective or long-lasting as many other vaccines, and when outbreaks of the disease occur even some vaccinated individuals become infected. However, vaccinated people usually display much milder symptoms. In addition, maintaining high vaccination and booster rates is important in suppressing whooping cough outbreaks and to protect those most vulnerable to this dangerous disease. According to current CDC figures, even with hospital treatment, 1 out of 100 pertussis-infected babies under a year old will die.

In the 1940s, a combined vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis was introduced. Different versions of the combined vaccine are used depending on the patient’s age. In the U.S., use of the combined vaccine caused annual pertussis cases to fall from as many as 270,000 to 4,000 or less by the 1980s. The combined vaccine is more convenient for patients, and this convenience also saves lives. Fewer injections translate to fewer missed doses, and therefore more protection in a shorter time.

Physician's sample package (ca 1949)

This physician's sample package (ca 1949) was mailed out to doctors to promote the company’s combined vaccine. The literature included with the sample bemoans the number of separate injections to which a patient would normally be subject: “Dear Doctor: ‘Pincushion" is the word for many a young patient."

The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:For coughs, colds, sore throat, hoarseness, croup and whooping cough.Currently not on view
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For coughs, colds, sore throat, hoarseness, croup and whooping cough.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1906
maker
Edwin Baker
ID Number
1978.0235.021
accession number
1978.0235
catalog number
1978.0235.021
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1920s
maker
H. K. Mulford Company
ID Number
1981.0895.010
accession number
1981.0895
catalog number
1981.0895.010
Yellow cardboard sign with black print. "WHOOPING / COUGH / Minimum quarantine period is six weeks. All members of the household, except those who / have previously had the disease, included.
Description (Brief)
Yellow cardboard sign with black print. "WHOOPING / COUGH / Minimum quarantine period is six weeks. All members of the household, except those who / have previously had the disease, included. No person 14 years of age or under will be / permitted to attend school, church, or any other public gathering until 14 days after / exposure.--Chapter 205, Statutes 1917. / McPherson County Health Department"
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
user
Pierson, Weir
ID Number
2013.3021.08
nonaccession number
2013.3021
catalog number
2013.3021.08
Yellow cardboard sign with black text reading, "WHOOPING COUGH- Children--except those of this household with the Health Officer's permit--must not enter or leave these premises. No person other than those authorized by the Board of Health shall remove this placard.
Description (Brief)
Yellow cardboard sign with black text reading, "WHOOPING COUGH- Children--except those of this household with the Health Officer's permit--must not enter or leave these premises. No person other than those authorized by the Board of Health shall remove this placard. Any person or persons defacing, covering up, or destroying this placard render themselves liable to the penalties of the law. Act of the General Assembly approved June 28, 1923, provides that anyone violating the provisions of this Act, upon conviction thereof may be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $100.00, to be paid to the use of said county, and costs of prosecution, or to be imprisoned in the county jail for a period of not less than ten days or more than thirty days, or both, at the discretion of the court.' By order of the Board of Health" with lines for the signature and address of the Health Officer and the date posted.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1923
ID Number
2005.3079.10
nonaccession number
2005.3079
catalog number
2005.3079.10
Pink cardboard sign with black text reading, "WHOOPING COUGH- Children--except those of this household with the Health Officer's permit--must not enter or leave these premises. No person other than those authorized by the Board of Health shall remove this placard.
Description (Brief)
Pink cardboard sign with black text reading, "WHOOPING COUGH- Children--except those of this household with the Health Officer's permit--must not enter or leave these premises. No person other than those authorized by the Board of Health shall remove this placard. Any person or persons defacing, covering up, or destroying this placard render themselves liable to the penalties of the law. Act of the General Assembly approved June 28, 1923, provides that anyone violating the provisions of this Act, upon conviction thereof may be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $100.00, to be paid to the use of said county, and costs of prosecution, or to be imprisoned in the county jail for a period of not less than ten days or more than thirty days, or both, at the discretion of the court.' By order of the Board of Health. Herman Lang, Health Officer, Donora, Pa. " with lines to write the date posted.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930s
ID Number
2005.3079.08
nonaccession number
2005.3079
catalog number
2005.3079.08
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1949
expiration date
1950-05-11
maker
Lederle Laboratories Division, American Cyanimid Company
ID Number
MG.M-06540
catalog number
M-06540
accession number
183169
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:For the relief of tuberculosis and bronchial troubles, asthma, catarrah, chronic coughs, hay fever, whooping cough, flu, grip, coldsCurrently not on view
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For the relief of tuberculosis and bronchial troubles, asthma, catarrah, chronic coughs, hay fever, whooping cough, flu, grip, colds
Location
Currently not on view
maker
L.B. Rhodes & Son
ID Number
1978.0235.039
accession number
1978.0235
catalog number
1978.0235.39
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:For malarial diseases, preventing and curing periodic fevers, remittent fever, yellow fever, inflammatory affections, whooping cough, sunstroke, acute art
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For malarial diseases, preventing and curing periodic fevers, remittent fever, yellow fever, inflammatory affections, whooping cough, sunstroke, acute articular rheumatism, typhus, typhoid fever, puerperal fever, scarlet fever, smallpox, erysipelas, diphhtheria, septicemia, asthenic pneumonia, profuse sweating, pneumonia, ulcers, abscesses, eye inflammations, mucous fluxes, whooping cough, hay fever, auditory vertigo, catarrh, gonorrhea, growths, and ulcers [The National Dispensatory, 4th Edition, 1880]
One of 13 specimens of quinine sulphate manufactured by American and foreign firms donated to the museum in 1923 by pharmaceutical chemist, Dr. Frederick B. Power. The specimens were portions of a series of samples used by an international committee around 1882 to determine standard tests for purity. Frederick Belding Power (1853-1927) was a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (1874) and the University of Strasbourg in Germany (1880). In 1883 he became the first leader of the University of Wisconsin's College of Pharmacy and later directed research in several pharmaceutical firms. Beginning in 1916 until his death, Power led the phytochemical laboratory of the U.S.D.A. Bureau of Chemistry.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1882
maker
Keasbey & Mattison Company
ID Number
MG.M-01635
catalog number
M-01635
accession number
69510
The indications or uses for this product as provided on its packaging:For human flesh: cuts, burns, bruises, chilblains, frost bites, chapped hands, sore throat, diphtheria, rheumatism, piles, ear ache, etc.
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided on its packaging:
For human flesh: cuts, burns, bruises, chilblains, frost bites, chapped hands, sore throat, diphtheria, rheumatism, piles, ear ache, etc. Internally: coughs, colds, croup, whooping cough, phthistic, asthma and kidney affections.
For horses: botts, belly ache, yellow water, coughs, colds, and horse distemper. Nothing like it for heaves and all sores, corks, galls and barbed wire fence cuts and flesh wounds of all kinds, and the scratches. For cattle: horn distemper, caked bags, cracked teats, etc.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
G. C. Taylor Company
ID Number
1989.0711.57
catalog number
1989.0711.57
accession number
1989.0711
According to the product packaging, this product is indicated for:A Popular Remedy for Sore Throat, Coughs, Colds, Croup, Sprains, Wounds and Bruises, Neuralgia, Earache, Frosted Feet or Chilblain and Whooping Cough.Currently not on view
Description
According to the product packaging, this product is indicated for:
A Popular Remedy for Sore Throat, Coughs, Colds, Croup, Sprains, Wounds and Bruises, Neuralgia, Earache, Frosted Feet or Chilblain and Whooping Cough.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1905
maker
Keystone Drug Co.
ID Number
2004.0050.12
catalog number
2004.0050.12
accession number
2004.0050
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:Coughs, colds, bronchitis, sore throat, hoarseness, loss of voice, croup, influenza, whooping coughCurrently not on view
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:
Coughs, colds, bronchitis, sore throat, hoarseness, loss of voice, croup, influenza, whooping cough
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1906 -1908
maker
Dr. B. J. Kay Medical Company
Saratoga Medical Company
ID Number
MG.293320.1216
accession number
293320
catalog number
293320.1216
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:Treatment of catarrh, hay fever, diphtheria, croup quinsy, tonsilitis, sore throat, whooping cough, bronchitis, asthma, women's weaknessesCurrently not on view
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:
Treatment of catarrh, hay fever, diphtheria, croup quinsy, tonsilitis, sore throat, whooping cough, bronchitis, asthma, women's weaknesses
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1908-1918
maker
Drevet Manufacturing Company
Marchand, Charles
ID Number
1984.0782.096
accession number
1984.0782
catalog number
1984.0782.096
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:For neuralgia, relaxing spasm, rheumatism, jaundice, hernia, phimosis [tightening of the foreskin], paraphimosis [painful retraction of the foreskin], obs
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For neuralgia, relaxing spasm, rheumatism, jaundice, hernia, phimosis [tightening of the foreskin], paraphimosis [painful retraction of the foreskin], obstinate constipation, whooping cough, nervous cough, asthma, laryngismus stridulus [spasm of the larynx with crowing inhalations], nervous vomiting, tetanus, stychnia poisoning, epilepsy, epidemic meningitis, incontinence of urine, pupil dilation, photophobia [painful sensitivity to light], perspiration, excessive salivation, mammary secretion control, typhoid fever, cardiac dropsy, protection against scarlatina [scarlet fever] [The National Dispensatory, Second Edition, 1880]
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
ID Number
MG.M-11550.01
catalog number
M-11550.01
accession number
261408
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:For use as a pain reliever, especially the pain of neuralgia and spasm, pain associated with cancer, spasm associated with tetanus or strychnine poisoning
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For use as a pain reliever, especially the pain of neuralgia and spasm, pain associated with cancer, spasm associated with tetanus or strychnine poisoning, whooping cough, epilepsy, spasmodic disorders, antidote for Calabar bean poisoning, opium poisoning, diseases of the eye, myopia, profuse sweating, diarrhoea, salivation of the insane, incontinence of urine, spermatorrhoea [involuntary discharge of semen], menorrhagia [heavy menstrual flow], pulmonary haemorrhage, ptyalism [excessive salivation], hay fever, urticaria [hives]. [The National Dispensatory, 5th Edition, 1896]
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
maker
Sharp and Dohme
ID Number
1978.0883.187
accession number
1978.0883
catalog number
1978.0883.187
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:For use in epilepsy, hydrophobia [rabies], spasmodic asthma, whooping cough, dysmenorrhoea, retention of urine, hemmorrhoids, fissure and other affections
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For use in epilepsy, hydrophobia [rabies], spasmodic asthma, whooping cough, dysmenorrhoea, retention of urine, hemmorrhoids, fissure and other affections of the anus and rectum, some neuralgic affections, rheumatism, local anodyne for bruises, sprains, and local injury including poisoning by Rhus toxicodendron [poison ivy], pupil dilation [The National Dispensatory, 5th Edition, 1896]
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1870-1900
ID Number
2002.0137.024
accession number
2002.0137
catalog number
2002.0137.024
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1946
maker
Parke, Davis and Company
ID Number
MG.M-06424
catalog number
M-06424
accession number
173771
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1938
maker
Parke, Davis and Company
ID Number
MG.M-04665
accession number
147292
catalog number
M-04665
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1949
expiration date
1950-09-21
maker
Lederle Laboratories Division, American Cyanimid Company
ID Number
MG.M-06544
catalog number
M-06544
accession number
183169
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1947
maker
Sharp and Dohme
ID Number
MG.176974.08
catalog number
176974.08
accession number
176974
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948-1949
expiration date
1949-05-21
maker
E. R. Squibb and Sons
ID Number
1981.0170.013
accession number
1981.0170
catalog number
1981.0170.013
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1959
expiration date
1959-09-07
maker
Merck Sharp and Dohme
ID Number
1982.0043.051
accession number
1982.0043
catalog number
1982.0043.051
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1952
expiration date
1952-04-06
maker
Eli Lilly and Company
ID Number
1978.0882.38
accession number
1978.0882
catalog number
1978.0882.38
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1947
maker
Sharp and Dohme
ID Number
MG.176974.07
catalog number
176974.07
accession number
176974
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1952
expiration date
1952-05-13
maker
Eli Lilly and Company
ID Number
1978.0882.07
accession number
1978.0882
catalog number
1978.0882.07

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