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

[Overnightoats1]

Just returned from the GP with my 12 year old DS.. I wasn't aware but there is a really bad whooping cough outbreak so thought sharing the symptoms may help other parents. Apparently the vaccine stops working effectively at about 10 years old so they are seeing a huge rise during this outbreak in 10-15 year olds. Its also really important to start antibiotics ASAP within the first week or so to prevent the spread in your home as it's caused by bacteria.
For us it seemed like a typical cold - low grade fever, congestion, runny nose that improved within 3 days but then the awful cough started. He is generally okay between coughs but the cough's are so violent they have made him get sick a few times and he battles to breathe during them gasping for air with the gasping whoop sound -he also coughs up this horrible clear stringy mucous. Luckily we have antibiotics now but it's definitely something that should be on every parent's radar right now as it's so contagious and very dangerous for pregnant unvaccinated women and unvaccinated smaller children - plus really awful for the kids with it. I didn't even think of whooping cough as assumed my DC would be okay as all vaccinated. Hope this helps someone!

My eldest contracted whooping cough at 4 months old, I’ll never forget that cough. He had it for 10wks and he was admitted to hospital for 5 nights as he also had bronchiolitis. The coughing was so bad sometimes he started burning blue and I was a very young mother who the doctors decided to ignore for 3 visits to the GP and 1 A&E when I was sent home, only for the A&E Doc to phone me the next morning to say they’d slept on it and wanted me to bring him back in!

i nearly died of WC when i was 3 months old - contracted just before my vaccine. i was in NICU for a while and it was touch and go.

I got asked if i wanted a booster not too long ago, i've never had a WC vaccine ever but may go for this one!

Apparently natural immunity from whooping cough can last 30-70 years so if it's rattling through the population this year we should see much lower levels of infection in the future again.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091029211528.htm#:~:text=The%20analysis%20revealed%20that%2C%20on,20%20years%2C%22%20said%20Rohani.

Sorry to hear that - I wasn't trying to pass on incorrect info, this website seems to be well evidence based but of course there are always exceptions. I had it in the 80s as a baby too, but no lasting lung damage, hopefully I will be as lucky at 44!

Measles is back too. A friend's baby is poorly with it atm. Too young to have had the vaccination.

But the measles vaccine is far longer lasting ….often lasts a lifetime….so if vaccinated you likely going to be fine and not succumb….WC vaccine nowhere near as effective …..often only lasts a few years

My dd20 finished her antibiotics yesterday. She’s not feeling so poorly now, but she’s completely exhausted because the cough is keeping her awake all night. She already had long Covid too, and she’s back in work today. I hope your son is soon on the mend.

My son had it at the end of last year and the cough wasn't too frequent, but coughing fits were so violent he would end up throwing up.
Official Dept of Health guidelines (sent by his SN school as it is so contagious) was that after 3 days' worth of ABs patients aren't contagious anymore.
He had a bad fever with it so we kept him home for much longer.

The guidance for no longer being an infection risk, is actually 48hrs after starting antibiotics ……or 3 weeks with no AB …..but taking AB makes little difference to symptoms and doesn’t mean you recover any quicker….as you will know with your DS

I had it about 10 years ago and wouldn’t wish it on anyone! It was awful and they said it was milder because I had been vaccinated

I had it when I was 12 (pre MMR vaccine) and I still remember how horrible it was, and not being able to breathe during coughing fits.

Yes the numbers are in reading - I had whooping cough a few weeks ago.

I got the extract information below but typing into my browser: NHS pertussis statistics UK

Confirmed cases of pertussis in England by month, to end April 2024
In England, provisionally there were 4,793 laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis reported to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) between January and April 2024 with 555 cases in January 2024, 920 in February, 1,430 in March and 1,888 cases in April (Figure 1). This compares with 858 (provisional) laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis reported in 2023. There have been 8 reported deaths in infants who developed pertussis between January and April 2024 [footnote 1].
Pertussis is a cyclical disease that peaks every 3 to 5 years, with the last cyclical increase occurring in 2016 and the last major outbreak occurring in 2012 (Figure 2, 3). Intervention measures implemented to help control the spread of COVID-19 between March 2020 and July 2021 also had an impact on other infectious diseases, including pertussis. Consequently, pertussis activity was exceptionally low across England from April 2020 and persisted at low levels until Summer 2023 when case numbers began to increase (Figure 1). Overall numbers in 2023 remained lower than pre-pandemic years (Figure 2, Table 1). The recent increase in pertussis cases has been observed across all age groups and in every region in England and case numbers have continued to rise across the first 4 months of 2024, as expected based on usual seasonal patterns.
Of the 4,793 cases confirmed between January and April 2024, around half (2,452 cases, 51.2%) were in those aged 15 years or older and 26.3% were in children aged between 10 and 14 years (1,260 cases) (Table 2).
The number of confirmed cases in infants under 3 months, who are at highest risk of severe disease and too young to be fully vaccinated, peaked at 407 cases in the earlier 2012 outbreak then fell after the introduction of maternal vaccination. In recent years, cases in infants under 3 months increased from 2 cases in 2022 to 48 cases in 2023 but remained lower than pre-pandemic cyclical peak years; there were 83 cases in infants under 3 months in 2019 (Table 2). Incidence continued to be highest in infants under 3 months in 2023 (Figure 2). There were 181 infants aged under 3 months with confirmed pertussis between January and April 2024 whilst there were 101 cases in the same period in 2012.
In the 12 years prior to the introduction of maternal pertussis vaccination in October 2012, 63 deaths occurred in babies aged under one year with confirmed pertussis. Since the introduction of pertussis vaccination in pregnancy, from 2013 to the end of April 2024, there have been 29 deaths in babies with confirmed pertussis who were all too young to be fully protected by infant vaccination. Sadly, this includes 8 deaths in infants who had contracted pertussis between January and April 2024. Of the 29 infants that died, 23 had mothers who were not vaccinated in pregnancy.

Sorry

in reading = increasing

Sorry I might have mixed up 2 days/3 weeks .
I just remember they were very concerned as they have many pupils with complex and very severe medical needs, so there were a lot of worried parents.
In hindsight we were lucky. Aside from his days of high temperature, the coughing itself was violent but quite infrequent. He could go hours without coughing once, and nights weren't particularly worse either.

Why aren’t kids getting a booster vaccine?

There's been a lot of threads and posts about this on MN. Lots of us have had it and it's awful. You can wet yourself vomit and faint with the cough. And it lasts for several months. I had it 3 months ago and while feel fine in myself in general now and again I still get the horrible debilitating coughing fits.

You will probably all catch it as it's so contagious. Once someone in your family starts with cold symptoms get the antibiotics straight away. It stopped it in it's tracks for my DS.

@EatTheGnome - I'm currently pregnant and they are (rightly!) pushing the WC vaccine. It was first brought up at my first appt with the midwife and I was able to get it right after my 20 week scan. They had some very sobering stats up about the number of babies affected in my area in the waiting room.

With my DS the antibiotics did mean he recovered faster. But that was only because he had them right at the beginning as I'd already been diagnosed with WC. But once your airways have been damaged it's too late.

That's just a colloquial name for Whooping Cough - apparently used by GPs who don't want to do the notifiable disease paperwork.

My friend had this persistent cough and had a blood test which revealed she had had WC She's been vaccinated as a child and is now in her fifties

There are still many HCPs that have no idea. I had to go in an ambulance when I had it. The crew didn't have a clue what WC was or the symptoms. They put on no PPE. I most probably passed it on to them all and they then passed it onto other vulnerable people. But they wouldn't listen.

DS has an urgent GP appointment this afternoon to be seen as we are concerned he has WC. He's 13yo.

It's taking a lot out of him. I have heard it has to be confirmed by blood test.

Childhood vaccinations only last a short time.

It doesn't have to be confirmed by blood test. My GP knew it was WC straight away due to hearing the cough.

Public health England asked for a swab for my DS to confirm.

The cough is very, very distinctive.