Whooping cough

[Barleycat]

My sons, both teenagers, have whooping cough. The oldest has been coughing for 5 weeks now and has had two trips to a and e in that time. Youngest been coughing for three weeks and is in the whooping and coughing up thick mucus and vomiting stage. We dudnt realise until last weekend that's what he had and none of the health professionals have done either. Saw a gp on tues this week who was v dismissive despite the whooping in the surgery and disease progression for both boys being text book. I asked about school as its v contagious for up to three weeks but thr gp said it was fine to go in, luckily he's been too ill but there was last week, as was my older son who now has several coughing friends. Asked about swab, Gp said they don't do it... Its a notifiable illness! So aibu in thinking that the gp should be taking this more seriously and that health professionals have forgotten how whooping cough presents and how bad it can be? We're in South London so would be interested to know of any other cases.

I got it at uni, was so unwell and went to the GP five times over a couple of months and A&E once. Fobbed off everywhere. Got on planes and trains with newborn babies and no doubt elderly vulnerable people etc. Eventually one GP thought maybe whooping cough and tested me. Lo and behold I get a message from the public health department telling me to isolate. Only four months too late... I heard afterwards literally hundreds of students at my uni had it, including about 5 of my friends I'm pretty sure I infected. Appalling that no one realised earlier given I had the classic symptoms.

I suspect my daughter who is 20 has this now. Unfortunately I think she has had it since late Nov/early Dec so if it is, it will be too late for any treatment. None of us in the house seem to have caught it but she is still coughing quite violently at times. We have seen a GP who said no signs of infection (didn’t mention whooping cough) so gave steroids as she has asthma too. Is there anything else that helps?

I see you are in South London, apologies if my boys somehow transmitted to you! It would not surprise me given the total lack of awareness and the number of people they unwittingly came into account with while infectious.

Oh my goodness @Barleycat - please don't worry at all. I know I got it from a night in a tent with my brother & nieces who were all coughing!

but I do worry about who I will have transmitted it to whilst blithely walking around with it…

I have been unwell since 27th November. For about a week, it was just mild cold symptoms. Then the cough started. I can’t remember ever being as unwell as I’ve been the past few weeks. My husband was close to calling an ambulance a couple of times in the night due the fact I was struggling to breathe. I’ve vomited, nearly wet myself, and been on my knees seeing stars with this cough. Three different GP’s have been very dismissive. I worked out a week ago that it’s whooping cough, thanks only to Google and finding audios of the sound of “whooping” and realising that it’s identical to the sound I’ve been producing. It feels like my throat and windpipe are closing up. Very thick mucus which never clears. I think I’m on week 7 and still having coughing fits several times a day, though very gradually feeling better. The fatigue has been unreal. None if the GP’s I saw would entertain the possibility of anything other than a mild chest infection. This is anything but mild!

I'm glad I found this thread and your helpful website @DrDougJ. I think I have whooping cough. Started with a mild cold for a couple of days with a tickly cough, then progressed to a chesty cough. I've definitely been getting the whoops during many of my coughing fits. I've really struggled to sleep, seem to be fine for a lot of the day. I'm on week 3 so saw the nurse practitioner yesterday and she referred to it as the 100 day cough, rather than whooping cough, but think it's the same thing? She diagnosed a chest infection and gave me penicillin but guess that's secondary. Depressing that there's nothing to be done treatment wise. My teenage DD has had it too, she's about 6 weeks in and now much better, but still coughing at night and describes the feeling of her lungs being completely deflated.

I was diagnosed with whooping cough a few days before my first vaccines as a baby, i nearly died as they took so long to diagnose it! My hospital stay was 3 months. Seems diagnosing hasn't improved then...

I think it’s far more prevalent than the stats indicate. My DH had it years ago, having caught it from a colleague who had private health care and, therefore access to a diagnosis. I and my teenage DS then caught it some years later so I saw the symptoms and went to my GP who thought it most unlikely ( because the coughing is intermittent and my chest sounded clear).

She did however organise a blood test and a few weeks (!) later it came back positive. I then got calls from the notifiable disease doctors and I was prescribed strong antibiotics which, in hindsight I regret because they made me feel awful and I was getting better by then.

Long story short, it’s not easy to diagnose.

I've got it now, as do my 11 year old and 14 year old. Hopefully we've all been caught early as I tricked the doctor into testing me by saying I was a close contact of someone who had been diagnosed. If you suspect it then insist on being tested early as you can. The antibiotics are apparently only effective in the first few weeks.

I know this is an old post but any advice for helping with this illness? Especially the vomiting after coughing phase. How long did it take to recover?

We are currently 6 weeks in and still carrying sick buckets round. DTs have missed a lot of school.
Annoyingly my Drs are saying it's not whooping cough but a 100day cough. I think they just don't want the hassle of reporting it. I've now got it as well but only 3weeks in. Painkillers, warm drinks and not much else I'm afraid....

I had the same thing of them saying 100 day cough (which is whooping cough). I can't offer much help except that I did find that trying to blow out (just a couple of little puffs out through pursed lips) at the end of a coughing spell but before breathing in seemed to stop the cough coming straight back. Warm drinks and Halls cough sweets helped to soothe a bit too. I am on week six and after four weeks of feeling awful and week of slowly getting better I'm now coughing a lot less and can finally get a few hours of sleep without waking to cough. I feel exhausted but much more back to normal.

I imagine we will have attendance letters soon as it's been all over the place. He's gone in when he can and home when he's been really bad. He's going through the violent coughing and being sick at the moment. Obviously can't be in school like that. Hopefully it won't last much longer mg we as he's exhausted and it's been just over 4 weeks.

Thanks for the advice we have been following a lot of it but I guess it just has to ride the course :(

Glad you're starting to feel better. Get well soon :)

I'm in surprised they don't want to report it. 100 day cough is whooping cough isn't it. Hope you feel better soon.

School is impossible when they are being sick. I don't think school understand how bad it is tbh. My son has had periods of not being to bad in the day and others of violent coughing and sickness. It's a horrible cough.

I had not had my vaccinations and as a middle aged adult my GP gave me the MMR.

I didn't know people were still getting this, my great aunt Kathleen died of it as a toddler in the 1910s, but I assumed that since the DPT vaccinations it was now virtually unheard of - clearly I was wrong. ☹️

15 years ago I'm convinced DD1 got this. The noise she made when in a coughing fit, along with coughing until she was sick was classic. But the gp dismissed it and told her she needed to get back to school. How she could do that when she was vomiting daily due to coughing, they didn't consider.

My yr 10 son had the 100 day cough starting in September. By the end of December he had finally stopped coughing.

It was never officially confirmed as I couldn't get a GP appointment but took him to the walk in centre a couple of times. He got antibiotics once as he had a chest infection after a few weeks and was really tired. He wasn't that unwell, but I've never seen him cough like that or cough to the point of vomiting.

We're in the south east - there's a lot of it around

I assume the vaccine isn't as effective as we are all vaccinated. It hasn't passed onto anyone else in the house yet. A couple of us have very bad sore throats but hopefully it's something else 🙈 I hope they bring out a new vaccine soon as I have known lots of cases locally. My poor son said he is fed up of feeling poorly :(

I thought the same but apparently the whooping cough vaccine wears off after about 10 years. I did look but you can’t even get a booster privately. It seems because it doesn’t kill older kids and grown ups it’s not seen as necessary. They do vaccinate pregnant ladies to protect the newborns as it can be fatal in babies. I think it’s massively under reported, everyone I know who has had it has just been told it’s 100 day cough. They don’t want the hassle. And anyway, the treatment with antibiotics only helps stop it spread, it doesn’t really help symptoms (and I think it’s an antibiotic with nasty side effects, which most wouldn’t want on top of the whooping cough). Sorry everyone is suffering, hope you start feeling better soon.

I didn't know it was a notifiable illness. Sooooo many people I know have this/had this recently. I'm still coughing and started in November.

If GPs aren't diagnosing it officially as WC, presumably they are not giving the recommended antibiotics which, although don't help with symptoms, do stop the patient being infectious. Might partially explain why it's spreading.
I didn't have a problem being diagnosed with it over 20 years ago when I was 6 months pregnant (that was fun!). Simple swabs as they did for COVID in the early days . I hadn't been vaccinated as a child due to medical issues, but my DH had been and didn't catch it from me. His vaccination would have been probably 35 years previously.

I did wonder about the private vaccine as I do not want to go through this again! Shame you can't get one.
My DTs are the same .. sick of coughing and throwing up. I have no idea when I can get them back to school...as soon as they are sick there they get sent home even though they know it's linked to the cough and we are well past the infectious period. They do know have antibiotics for chest infections which have developed. I worked out if it goes the full 100 days we should be through it as a family by mid to late April....that's rather depressing!