To let you know there is a serious whooping cough outbreak in the UK?

Further to that, here's some info from the US' Mayo clinic:

"Antibiotics kill the bacteria causing whooping cough and help speed recovery. Exposed family members may be given preventive antibiotics. Unfortunately, not much is available to relieve the cough. Over-the-counter cough medicines, for instance, have little effect on whooping cough and are discouraged."

@Marmite27 @Riversideandrelax @ShrinkingEveryDay It's quite frustrating that the old term, 100 day cough, is still used because unless you say, pertussis or whooping cough, it just sounds rather innocuous. No wonder whooping cough is spreading! People don't take necessary precautions, protect others or see their doctor for medication early on because they don't know. I also heard about the 100 day cough back in Dec/Jan and mentioned it to the doctor at the hospital when I had my toddler in emergency for RSV and croup and the doctor didn't clarify that it was whooping cough I was talking about, unless he wasn't familiar with the old term. I just shake my head at our reactive medical system and cannot understand why it isn't more proactive.

It’s been all over the news, how are people not aware? It was being called the 100 day cough earlier in the year.

Me too and I kept passing out in front of my DC. It's a very scary illness.

Oh, no! That must've been awful for all of you. 😲

@Mumtobabyhavoc you poor thing that must have been so hard. I stopped breathing in front of my kids a couple of times when coughing - it really scared them 😢

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ggge56x1qo

@Looolaaa So sorry , please don’t let it panic you . My mum told me years later he had a congenital heart defect which is why he’d been admitted .
My husband had WC as a child and is still very much alive and well

I hope your DC will be much better soon.

Mullein tea will help with the sticky mucus. I had it myself.

Meant to @ShrinkingEveryDay

Oh, god that must be scary! My NB baby, toddler and I all had RSV in January and that was pretty awful. Toddler needed rescue steroid as developed croup and the following week baby was admitted to hosp and on oxygen 4 days. Children are so vulnerable.

What a thing to read as I listen to my 9 year old cough away in bed with suspected WC

That must have been so traumatic for you. So sorry you went through that and that poor little boy.

My teenage sons had it this time last year. I posted about it at the time as doctors were v dismissive. It's a horrible illness.

Oh, bless you. I'm not surprised it affected you so deeply. But how wonderful it lead you to nursing.

I'm much better, thank you, getting there!

I read just yesterday, that in the 1940s they used steam and made 'vapour tents' for whooping cough, out of bedsheets and bowls of boiling hot water (sounds dangerous I know but at least we have alternatives for steam these days). Anyway, it apparently helped treat whooping cough tremendously.
Humidifiers and steam inhaler machines people!!

@Riversideandrelax That’s awful … 😢 have you recovered from your stroke , it’s a vile illness .
I never got over seeing that little boy die ,I did decide there at age 7 I wanted to go into nursing .. and I did . It still haunts me , no one ever spoke to me about it until my mum brought it up years later

Oh, how traumatic! Poor little boy and poor you.

I thought I was going to die when I had it. I ended up having a stroke. The cough is just so intense.

It really is. I don't think anyone who has had it will ever forget it.

I'm so sorry your school did not help you. You must have passed it on to so many others. Dreadful.

It’s really worrying that there are so many cases at the moment .
When I was 7 I was in an isolation hospital with meningitis , it was the seventies so parents didn’t stay like they do now ..there was a window behind the bed into the next room and the 4 year old boy in there had whooping cough
We used to wave at each other through the window , one day in the midst of a coughing fit, In front of my eyes he had a cardiac arrest.and died 😩
people don’t realise how deadly some of these childhood illnesses can be .. it’s 46 years ago but I still can’t unsee it

Oh gosh I had this when I was 12 or 13 and I remember the dreadful whooping coughs that you can’t stop. Sadly I was in boarding school at the time and told to get on with it, so no antibiotics. Went home for the summer and my mum went ballistic!!

anyway, the cough is very very distinctive and unlike anything else I have heard before so if someone in your family has it, it can’t be mistaken for anything else!

i hope everyone who has it feels better soon

It isn't pleasant though, gasping for breath, with or without the 'whoop'. For me the worst part was constantly passing out. It really is an awful cough, isn't it? I hope you feel better soon.

The trouble is if you leave it to see the doctor until it's not improving nothing can be done. You will also have spread it around - wearing a mask will not help this.

Knowing the symptoms of whooping cough so you know to get to the GP quickly will help the spread.

Lots of people don't make a 'whoop' sound when they are gasping for breath.