A doctor is urging people to take action to prevent the spread of a ‘terrifying’ fatal disease. Cases of whooping cough are skyrocketing in the UK and across the globe.
It is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes that can spread quickly and is occasionally fatal – particularly in young babies. Older children and adults can also have it, although it tends to be less serious.
Dr Xand van Tulleken was discussing the issue on BBC’s Morning Live. He said that vaccination rates for mums had dropped off, leading to an increase in whooping cough.
“Cases have gone up. They go up cyclically every 3-5 years, so this is an expected rise, but last year we had many fewer cases. We had less than a thousand cases – this year we are over 4,000 cases, so it is a significant rise,” Dr van Tulleken said.
“The key thing to emphasise is that, although it is not preventable – some people who have had the vaccine can still get the illness – what the vaccine is very good at doing is reducing the death rate down to almost nothing, and that is the bit that is really terrifying.
“Maternal vaccine uptake has fallen from around 75 per cent to less than 60 per cent and that 15 per cent decrease is really significant because if you don’t get the vaccine during pregnancy for those first 8-9 weeks of life before you get your eight-week shot, you don’t have any protection and you are incredibly vulnerable at that stage of life. We have seen deaths in infants already this year. That is the terrifying thing.”
Symptoms of whooping cough tend to start with cold-like issues such as a runny nose and soar throat. After a week, that turns into coughing fits lasting several minutes that tend to be worse at night. The coughing tends to include a ‘whooping’ sound as they gasp for breath.
Young infants can struggle to breathe and even turn blue or grey. Turning red is also not uncommon, and they may also bring up thick mucus which can make them vomit. whooping cough can last for weeks or months.
Parents of children under six months old are advised to book an urgent GP appointment or contact NHS 111 if the child is under six months old and has symptoms, or if you have been in contact with someone with whooping cough and you are pregnant.
If your or your child's lips, tongue, face or skin suddenly turn blue or grey, it is harder to breathe, there is chest pain and there are seizures, you are advised to call 999 or go to A&E.
Whooping cough can lead to issues such as dehydration, breathing difficulties, pneumonia and fits. Hospital treatment is usually needed if it is a severe case.
If it is detected within three weeks, a course of antibiotics is usually sufficient to clear it up. Patients are not contagious after three weeks.
“It is appropriate to be worried enough that you do something about it because, if you are pregnant or your children are young and you have missed vaccines due to Covid, then you do want to be worried enough to go and have that vaccine,” Dr van Tulleken added.
“We know that vaccine is safe during pregnancy. There is recent research – from 2014 – 20,000 pregnant women studied and it did not increase the risk of any adverse event in pregnancy at all.”