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

I wish I didn't have the whoop, for me it's the worst bit of it, struggling to get your breath in.

We could be having the same conversation about covid, flu, common cold, RSV and a host of other diseases which are preceded by what seems like "just a cold" as runny nose, fatigue and mild cough are the start of a lot of more serious illnesses. At the end of the day staying home when ill, wearing a mask if needing to go out and seeing the doctor if it's not improving or worsening are still basic actions to take.

I think the whole 'whoop' thing confuses things. Most people do not make a 'whoop' sound. But then people think they don't have it if they don't 'whoop'.

To my mind if there's a large outbreak of such a contagious illness then they should know.

No. I'm a nurse, I am aware of how the disease works. Yeh? Once your airways are damaged the antibiotics will not have an effect on the duration of the cough.

I think it would be prudent to see the doctor.

DS was swabbed and given antibiotics. No idea if he definitely has WC or not.

My daughter 9 has whooping cough at the moment she has had the antibiotics and its not too bad luckily
The cough itself is horrible her trying to catch her breath inbetween is horrible to watch but for her it mostly affects her at night she hardly coughs during the day
When i took her to the doctor i said it can't be whooping cough as she is vaccinated but i didn't realise that the vaccine can wear off she had to have 5 days off school due to the schools rule
since found out there are lots of cases of it in school but no letters or emails from the school about it being in the school.

@Soubriquet sadly the vaccine does not work for everyone. But if nearly everyone has the vaccine, then it protects those who are not helped by the vaccine as well.

He did have the vaccine after he was born, and the booster for the pre-school ones.

Plus I was vaccinated during pregnancy to so theoretically he should be covered till he’s 13/14

Sunday

OP, which part of the country are you in? I'm in Sussex, and there have been cases of it in my sons class since the new year. I am sure I have just had it myself as I was so ill a month ago. I was signed off work, and my doctors were awful.
They insisted I had a virus, and that it was not whooping cough - I've never felt so ill. They also said there was no extra cases of it in the country.
What a pile of bollocks. Perhaps if they diagnosed people rather than ignoring them, they could treat us which would in turn stop the spreading.

Pricks.

Agreed. So sad. Whooping cough was fairly unknown for decades, but has made a come back because of children not being vaccinated.

At 9 he may not have the distinctive whoop.

@Soubriquet how long has he been sick for?

Ds (9) has an awful cough. He sounds a lot like the video clip on the website someone posted. He doesn’t have the distinctive whooping sound though.

Well this explains why my DH has had a horrible cough for months and the rest of the family haven't as we have all been vaccinated (pregnancy and then preschool jabs) and his must have run out.

Yes, the cough is very distinctive, but not everyone exhibits it. Adults often don't have the whoop sound, although I did.

@Riversideandrelax

It's been known for a long time that the vaccine wears off (which is possibly why it's not featured much in the news, as it's not new).

The last big outbreak was in 2012 - after which the immunisation for pregnant women was introduced. I think I may have had it then - I didn't whoop, but I had a cough that lasted for over 6 weeks, as did many other parents and DC at the school. So maybe that topped us all up?

I'm not sure of the strength of the evidence for how much it wears off, nor how quickly, and that's likely to vary between individuals anyhow.

One new factor is repeated covid exposures. There is now good evidence of covid dampening down the immune system - an effect that can last for many months, so if you're getting covid 2x a year, your immune system probably doesn't have the time to get back on track. That means that we would expect to see rises in many infectious diseases, with people getting them that bit more readily, and getting them that bit worse.

Was just swabbed for it myself this week so I will wait and see if I have it. Given antibiotics anyway.

May be she didn’t mean to be rude which is why I asked the question and then gave a less blunt way of putting it.

From the descriptions of the cough and the breathing problems it causes, I'm pretty sure I have this.

In week 2 I was told whooping cough is viral, there was nothing they could do even if I did have it, so no point testing.

In week 4, the doctor treated me with clarithromycin and steroids but refused to test or give a diagnosis other than 'unspecified respiratory tract infection'.

In week 6 they decided to test, but there was no point as I'd had the antibiotics and still nobody wants to call it whooping cough because then there's paperwork.

I'm now 8 weeks in and it's absolutely rubbish. Whenever the cough hits my kids get really worried and my DC keeps saying he hopes I don't die. It makes me so cross that I've probably unknowingly passed this on and that could've been prevented by proper testing and treatment when I first saw the surgery in week 2.

@Kitkat1523
I don't think that the paperwork puts GPs off although you are correct it is notifiable. Notification takes very little time or effort.Around here it takes about 4 weeks to get a result so testing doesn't benefit the patient at all and there are shortages of nurse/ phlebotomy appointments.Diagnosis is clinical. Just to reiterate antibiotics are useful early in the illness to reduce spread of the disease but have little effect on the symptoms.
WC is very dangerous to babies and can cause long term lung damage known as bronchiectasis although luckily most people recover unscathed.
This , and the measles outbreak, should be a moment for public health messaging about childhood, workplace and pregnancy imms but I haven't seen much.

Fair enough. DS will be glad of that!😅