<P> B. pertussis was discovered in 1906 by Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou , who also developed the first serology and vaccine . Efforts to develop an inactivated whole - cell vaccine began soon after B. pertussis was cultured that year . In the 1920s , Louis W. Sauer developed a weak vaccine for whooping cough at Evanston Hospital ( Evanston , IL ) . In 1925 Danish physician Thorvald Madsen was the first to test a whole - cell vaccine on a wide scale . Madsen used the vaccine to control outbreaks in the Faroe Islands in the North Sea . </P>
when did they start vaccinating for whooping cough
the 1920s