Whooping cough - not just a 1940s disease

[margerybruce]

Can I just take this opportunity to ask everyone to go and get a booster for whooping cough?

I have just recovered from this shitty horrible disease and it's really knocked me for six. I had to have a month off work and I was ill for at least two months before that, trying to work through it before I knew that's what I had.

I have asthma so it was made worse by that.

vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/pertussis-whooping-cough

From the CDC - In the first year after getting vaccinated, whooping cough vaccines for adolescents and adults (called Tdap) protect about 7 out of 10 people who receive them. There is a decrease in effectiveness in each following year. About 3 or 4 out of 10 people are fully protected 4 years after getting Tdap.

My sister got it from
An unvaccinated child, she already had MS so caused a relapse that she has not recovered from. Vaccination very important!

@SanitysSake may or may not make a difference to your decision, but you know the vaccine itself doesn't cross the placenta to the baby, right? The molecules are too big. It's only your own antibodies that go through to the baby.

I have a visceral hate of the pathetic parent who didn't get their child inoculated and infected her.

Do you know that parent well? If not, you have no idea why her DC wasn't vaccinated - she could well have been following medical advice based on family medical history.

I would never have thought about it.

Are we meant to get the MMR & Menigitis vaccine redone at any point?

I really think that they should do Hep B vaccines for school age children & not just health professionals. I remember during training you can catch it from a urine splash in the eye. So there was many anxious students waiting results. Then we all went on to have the vaccine. I think it's two courses, so many weeks apart. Although it's Hep C I think you can get from tattoos etc.

Sorry for changing the subject.

Amdro yes I do know her.

Rugbyplayersarehot

Then I apologise.
I get a bit frustrated when some people make assumptions about those who have not been vaccinated - with my history of life threatening reactions and my adopted DD have also come close to dying from a vaccine it's a sore point.

Helpful answers, thank you. I get post viral wheeze and asthma so coughing till eyes are streaming and I think I'm going to vomit or die is not that unusual. I get scared with a heavy cold. It feels like you are drowning in your own bed.

I'll look out for the mucous, and the deep deep itch, and that it is even worse than I already get. Joy!

Racmactac my DD2 has had whooping cough twice, once in 2012 - good old Mumsnet diagnosed her, and again at the beginning of last year. She was v v ill for a very long time with the first bout, the second round wasn't as bad, but she was still really ill.

It is a really nasty disease, and I would wholeheartedly urge everyone who needs a vac to get it done.

I think I had it a few years ago. The Dr's never tested me and so I had to suffer to the bitter end but I had the classic cough and it lasted several months. Would that make me immune or do I still need the jab? It was horrific btw. I don't recommend anyone catch it!

I've not had the immunisation as far as I know, though the children are up to date with everything. There are gaping holes in my vaccination history for medical reasons at the time, and they've never been revisited as time has gone on. It's something I should get them to look into, though I'm not sure what they can do at nearly forty.

I must admit I had no idea the childhood immunisations offered such limited protection. Where can adults get the booster? It is only offered routinely to pregnant women. The only places I could see that offered it privately were London travel clinics. Would older children or teenagers need a booster?

I had it last year, I also have asthma. My chest was clear so knew it wasn't a normal chest infection for me but I had the distinctive whoop. The coughing fits were horrendous to the point I had to make sure I was in the bathroom as I lost control of everything It took me months to recover from it, I found it scary so can't how a child or baby would feel

Rugbyplayersarehot babies are more likely to catch whooping cough from adults. If you, your OH, your baby's GPs or friends who have been close to your baby were not vaccinated against Whooping Cough could have infected your baby.

The amount of adults on here who have had Whooping Cough, you do realise it could be you passing it on to someone's baby. I don't understand why children are always blamed, adults need to be vaccinated too, it's not life long protection!

Thanks for starting this thread OP

I had the whooping cough injection during the 3rd trimester while pregnant with my now almost 3 year old.

It's so important that pregnant women take up the offer of this vaccine.

I've heard of outbreaks locally here in SE London. A friend knows of a couple of parents who do not vaccinate (for anything) and their children developed whooping cough.

The vaccine isn't 100% effective, but I think it's at least worth having to give some protection!

Wasn't whooping cough the one we drank as youngsters?

I don't agree with those against vaccinations. Even if there was a likelihood your child getting something like the whole MMR/Autism thing. Surely if there was even the smallest risk, the devastation that measles can cause, it's worth the protection.

I know adults who get mumps, in particular men can have serious issues. They thought I had mumps as a teenager as all my glands ballooned bigger than golf balls. Not only was it really uncomfy I felt miserable in myself. It was awful truly awful. I had the illness then recovery. People seldom think about recovery.

OP I sympathise. I had it 4 years ago, in my mid-40s. Horrible. Pulled lots of muscles in my back and stomach and regularly thought I would pass out as I couldn't catch my breath. Was vaccinated when a child, but didn't know a booster is recommended when you get to 30s or 40s. Took me about 6 months to recover properly. No idea where I caught it, but the country where I live (NZ) was going through an epidemic at the time.

Hope you recover well OP - as a PP has said, it's awful as an adult and must be terrifying as a child.

The NHS doesn't offer the vaccine to adults unless they are pg

Sorry OP. I medically can not have the whooping cough jab. I am vaccinated against everything else but one of my conditions and my consultant when I was younger told my mum I could never have it. I have asthma too.

YNBU to ask though. When it was doing the rounds near us I was petrified of catching it.

Hope you're on the mend and well on the road to recovery now

Away I was told no whooping cough and no heaf/BCG. I didn't have any immunisations at all between 1 and 11, so go all sorts of childhood diseases when I was growing up.

I have a visceral hate of the pathetic parent who didn't get their child inoculated and infected her.

Eeek! That's a bit judgemental presumptive. You probably hate my mum and my consultant then. Do feel free to hate me too. I am about as far removed from an antivaxxer as you can be but I genuinely nearly lost my son when he had a severe reaction to his mmr booster jab. It very nearly killed him. Yes it's rare but it still happened. His medical team decide from now on whether he really needs any other vaccinations.
It's not always about someone who's read a few batshit theories online.

Elvish I think that was for Polio wasn't it?

Interesting isn't it Queen just always makes me a bit 🙊 when people just automatically assume your parent was probably just an antivaxxer who point blank refused.

My DS's reaction was that severe, breathing difficulties, extremely lethargic, ending up in hospital more than once with a temp of over 39 despite being plied with Calpol and Nurofen. He had the jab on the monday and on the friday he was still really unwell, my usual cool as a cucumber, not panicked by anything GP who 'd been at the surgery for years and seen it all, quite literally panicked about my DS that Friday and even yellow carded it themselves.

I've always been really open about the fact I've not had all my jabs, but have had all the ones that at the time it was thought safe to have.

The TB ones I haven't had because there were contraindications involving meningitis which I had a severe case of as a child. People look at you as though you're bonkers when you mention you have had measles and mumps but you're also under forty.

Ho hum.

I am ragingly pro vaccination though. My eldest has tried to convince me that the senior school schedule is optional and I told her that she gets no choice on this one until she hits 18. She understands my reasoning, she just doesn't like the dead arm and reaction bump she gets.

Yes my DD is fully immunised too. (Asthmatic). She's had all the tests done to show her immunisations have worked too (isn't modern medicine amazing?) DS is fully vaccinated too in a sense. Although I haven't consented to him having the flu jab the past two years. He needs closely monitoring by his medical team for any future immunisations he may need and they don't, oddly enough consider the flu jab to be one he needs. No asthma etc so no underlying health conditions which make him more of a risk to need protecting from it.

No idea for the medical reason (apart from my condition) behind me not being able to have the whooping cough jab, the consultant told my mum as a baby that if I ever developed complications with my conditions it would cause further problems, given I did develop complications 13 years later and subsequently spent most of year 9 out of school I think the consultant made a good call!