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Pertussis is a respiratory disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It is airborne, highly contagious, and responsible for an annual 18 million illnesses and 250,000 deaths worldwide. Globally, pertussis is one of the leading causes of death for children under 5 years old. In the United States, the annual number of pertussis cases has been increasing since the early 1980s. Despite high vaccine coverage, there were still over 48,000 cases reported in the U.S. in 2012, which is the highest number since 1955.

Lyme disease is a devastating infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). Ticks are a natural reservoir for Bb; the bacteria survive in salivary glands and are transmitted to humans during a bite event. Since Bb was isolated in the 1980s there has been an increasing awareness of the prevalence and spread of Lyme disease throughout the United States.