whooping cough

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A highly contagious disease of the respiratory system, usually affecting children, that is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis and is characterized in its advanced stage by spasms of coughing interspersed with deep, noisy inspirations.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An acute contagious disease of childhood, from which, however, adults are not always exempt, characterized by recurrent attacks of a peculiar spasmodic cough.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun pathology A contagious disease of the respiratory system that usually affects children; caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. In the advanced stage it is characterised by spasms of coughing followed by a whooping sound during the intake of breath.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane