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!

Yeah I didn’t know the vaccine wore off. Not impressed

It’s been known for a while. Natural immunity from whooping cough wears off after a similar period of time. I think during the last outbreak they offered boosters to teens. Or they added it to the vaccine schedule.

8 babies have died since January. It’s really really important that pregnant women take the vaccine offered if possible. It’s the only way to protect very small babies and as adults and older children don’t tend to whoop they may not realise they have whooping cough.

It has been offered to pregnant women routinely since 2012 in the UK. I had my babies in 2022 and 2023, and had the vaccine for both.

They get a booster at 3y4m, which would last them until secondary school. We historically haven't vaccinated secondary kids and adults because it is unlikely to cause severe morbidity, and extremely unlikely to cause mortality, in this age group. The NHS is unfortunately all about cost vs benefit and if you aren't going to die then it's not seen as cost effective. Now that fewer parents are vaccinating their young children (an age group that DOES suffer severe morbidity and mortality), I really hope the NHS will revisit this in order to decrease the overall burden. Frustratingly, TMK it is not even available privately to non-pregnant women so we can't even pay to protect older kids and adults. I had it for my last 2 pregnancies, and both small kids have had it, so us 3 are probably fairly well protected, but hubby would have zero immunity to it now.

Yes and not really their fault because it was eradicated and now it's back. But still not the first thing people expect.

Except you don’t know if he recovered quicker ….cos you don’t know what he would have been like without them …yeh? …..not everyone gets the same severity of coughing or duration…. It certainly isn’t a case of once your airways are damaged it’s too late ….that’s bollocks

Most gps won’t test….it makes paperwork for them as it’s a noticeable disease ….they just treat with the correct AB

I blame the monster shouters. Freaked everyone out about the COVID vaccine and now parents are being idiots over the rest.

Please - if you’re pregnant and/ or have friends/family who are, speak to your Midwife about getting the Pertussis vaccine

I think it’s got worse since then. We’re now over 1000 new cases a week.

Fair enough. DS will be glad of that!😅

@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.

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.

This sounds just like my son 2/3 days of cold symptoms and now only the cough - he is well in himself between coughing fits .. when I called the GP and mentioned his symptoms - he told us to come straight in.

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.

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

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.

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

@Riversideandrelax

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.

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.

@Soubriquet how long has he been sick for?

At 9 he may not have the distinctive whoop.

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

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.

Sunday