U.S. health officials say whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year.

City of Houston chief medical officer talks preventing the bacterial illness and signs to look out for.

A new simulation study suggests that a person coughing can traject droplets beyond six feet, CNN reports. According to CNN, the new study, published on Tuesday in the journal Physics of Fluids found this puts people shorter than the person coughing – such as children – at greater risk of being exposed to cough droplets. “Young children may be at greater risk compared to adults based on the typical downward cough trajectory. Teenagers and short adults are advised to maintain a social distance greater than 2 m from taller persons,” the study says according to CNN. According to CNN, the results of the study are based on simulation models and not real-life experiments.