Whooping cough

[Pinkyandthebrain96]

Like the title has anyone been struck down by whooping cough, can't believe I am in my 50's and got whooping cough .Driving me stir crazy , signed off work ,cannot cough without being sick and am now coming into week six .I am also asthmatic which does not help and my peak flow is in the yellow zone .Just wondering if anyone has found anything that relieves the cough and the feeling that you literally cannot get air , literally air starvation .

It just seems so utterly irresponsible of gps to dismiss the possibility of whooping cough due to paperwork (plus possibly discouraged by senior management)? We have 2 family friends who are pregnant and I will stay well away from them, but it's scary to think WC patients are not being given a diagnosis and therefore putting babies and pregnant women at severe risk.

uk is busy normalizing any disease since the start of the pandemic, especially those with the same symptoms as covid. Covid & whooping cough are both notifiable diseases, meaning GP had to notify PHE, PHE had to call you and tell you about transmission, prevention & treatment: did they? Taking you seriously? They are breaking the law by not notifying PHE of a notifiable disease during a surge of whooping cough cases which would make any real doctor diagnose or rule out covid & whooping cough, considering how similar symptoms are initially. This is their duty of care towards you. Followed by PHE's duty of care towards all of us. If this is a joke to them, why exactly are they allowed to practice medicine?

Too late? This is a notifiable disease and the chain of medical errors is quite huge: misdiagnosis, wrong or no treatment, no involvement from the PHE which needs to be notified about whooping cough (and if not whooping cough, it's their duty of care to rule out covid - another notifiable disease with the same initial symptoms. Because of the misdiagnosis, the public was put in danger by them ignoring a notifiable disease. What diagnosis is written in your medical file? I read here before from another mum how she found out that there are now 2 medical files, one primary and one secondary: she had repeated chest infections which appeared in the secondary one, and one episode of anxiety in the past which appeared in the main medical file. And remember how the depart of education recently forced schools to give parents letters to threaten them with fines & CRIMINAL RECORD for their children's absences, without bothering to check the reason (many sick children, when checking), but it's ok for NHS to ignore notifiable diseases making sure everyone is exposed to diseases that can take months to disappear. Can it all be any more absurd?

ignoring whooping cough due to paper work? Did you question them to justify their words? A notifiable disease can be diagnosed even before a test or a result is obtained. So if they wanted to simplify it, they would diagnose it straight away and inform the PHE, especially during an outbreak. What paperwork is needed for whooping cough? What exactly are they trying to say? Paperwork is to blame for ignoring a disease that can affect patients for months during an outbreak? Even African health care system has more sense & decency. So, by not doing the 'paperwork', they didn't give the correct diagnosis to the patients while allowing everyone around the patient to be exposed to a dangerous disease, causing a burden for a broken health care system, but the initial diagnosis is considered the burden, not the disease, the symptoms, how it affects the patient, how dangerous it can be? This is all worth saving paperwork in their minds? How exactly did they save time, by not informing PHE, by not protecting the public, by not informing you, by not teaching you about prevention, treatment & transmission? If paperwork is too complicated, then they should take your word for it and consider it whooping cough. And what good is a healthcare system that knows less than the patient? What did they learn from the covid pandemic: how a correct diagnosis is too much bother?

They did not. They have fobbed me off three times now:

1. when trying to get an appointment the receptionist laughed at me when I said I thought I had WC and said “we don’t have any of that around here. Lots of people have that hundred day cough though.” I said “but that’s the same thing as WC” and she was very ride in tone and said “I think we know better than you.”
2. First doctor wouldn’t even acknowledge that I had a viral infection and told me it was asthma. He signed me off work for 3 days and wrote “wheezing and coughing” on the fit note. Ignored me asking “could it be whooping cough? I have all the symptoms.”
3. Second doctor, the next day, I told her “I have whooping cough and nobody is taking me seriously.” I said this 3 times during the appointment and she brushed it off every time, never answering the question directly. I gave her all of my symptoms including coughing until I passed out and I had a coughing fit in front of her including the characteristic whoop. She listened to my chest, told me it was clear so no infection (which I knew anyway) then prescribed antibiotics in case of the non existent infection. I asked “could you prescribe the antibiotics that are prescribed for WC because they will stop me from transmitting it?” She ignored me and prescribed amoxicillin which doesn’t work for WC. I’m sure they’ve all been told not to acknowledge it or diagnose it in adults.

And before anyone suggests it, I am not being over dramatic about a cough - I have never experienced anything like it. It is far far worse than any cough I’ve ever had including pneumonia and it feels and acts differently to any other cough I’ve had. I know I am right about this.

This is on the GP's information website: ''Registered medical practitioners have a statutory duty to notify the 'proper officer' at their local council or local health protection team (HPT) of suspected cases of notifiable diseases.'' - it means all they need is to suspect you of a notifiable disease, without even a test or a result. https://patient.info/doctor/notifiable-diseases And if they don't have time, this is not your problem, the managers who reduced patients to insignificant objects - is their problem : ''https://www.gponline.com/medico-legal-duty-notify-specified-diseases/travel-health/travel-health/article/1112349 Otherwise they break the law- is breaking the law cheaper and less time consuming than informing PHE to protect the patients and the public? During an outbreak of more than 1 notifiable diseases: covid, whooping cough, Strep A? This isn't a burden for the GP, but the prevention, treatments, diagnosis are? This is an upside-down health care system then!

God, I don't know where to start: how much effort do the UK GPs put into doing the wrong thing, despite doing the right thing being cheaper, more humane, better economically, better financially for NHS & patients & this sick country. Of course having the correct diagnosis and correct treatment means a better chance for the patients to be able to go back to work (better for the UK economy), better for NHS not having to deal with a sick patient again and again and again. But it all comes down to the very simple fact that they broke the law by refusing to notify the PHE. Why did they break the law so blatantly? Do they have any moral compass, empathy, medical knowledge, humanity? Are they paid for this? I thought NHS has no money: a broken health care system relies on prevention, on that very paperwork they complain is time-consuming, this is what a broken health care system does: prevent the transmission of a notifiable disease, knowing that they don't care less for the patients when affected by them, so having less patients should be beneficial for them.....who is running NHS? how did they all accept to fall so low?

And above all they broke their own constitution- NHS constitution, their duty of care towards you. Can they collect any more blatant errors? And with what purpose: without the paperwork they blamed, there is no diagnosis, no treatment, no prevention, more sick patients, more confusion - can they now explain what they meant? From their attitude, there are no winners, only losers, so why exactly did they do this?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/whooping-cough/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20378978

Never forget that uk spent the last 4 years fighting against covid vaccines. JCVI never wanted to protect children, despite the vaccines being approved by MHRA months before the decision control was taken out of the JCVI's hands so children could get vaccinated, In the end, JCVI was back in control, promoting covid infections instead of covid vaccines. You don't fight one vaccine and expect this not to have dramatic consequences for other vaccines. Plus the immunity of the uk population is now damaged by repeated covid infections, and many others following a weak immune system, left unchecked, again while UK managed to ban covid vaccine for almost everyone under 65. No other country did so much harm to its own population and turned against the vaccines this country invented and was so proud of initially.

It's funny you posted about this, my sons school seems to be overrun with cases of the whooping cough and we are in Sydney, Australia. We also vaccinate here for it.

I have had three official letters from the dept of health via school about the number of cases in the past 2 months.

I had whooping cough in 2014. What I have seen in my 8 month old and 7 year old is definitely whooping cough but on steroids!

They are both doing much better after almost 3 months of coughing and no sleep for us all! The baby is doing much better now than the 7 year old who seems to have caught another cough at school he was doing so much better than her before.

Anyway the clear phlegm, the choking and sweating, the clear chest when Gp listened they tried to fob me off but I recorderd my daughter and son coughing and they were making the whoop sound so they were diagnosed correctly. It was too late for the anti biotics if only they had listened.

Baby was admitted twice in hospital and to feed in hospital she had stopped eating due to coughing and throwing up!

What helped:
1: raise your heads when sleeping

2: Drink loads of water especially coconut water really helped to keep them hydrated.

3: Sunshine and vitamin D

4: Garlic water at times would also help especially my daughter

5: Plenty of rest and again Vitamin D

They are doing so much better and I know my 7 year old it’s definitely a new cough from school not the whooping cough because he doesn’t whoop anymore at all.

They are both vaccinated so and I was also fully vaccinated. I found out the vaccine doesn’t guarantee immunity and it also stops being effective at some point so let’s not demonise other people and their choices and let’s look at the facts most people getting it right now are vaccinated.

But a Doctor said to me due to us not mingling during the pandemic period our immune systems are vulnerable at the moment. Humans always need to be around each other to also spread diseases safely but because we were not doing this, we have compromised head immunity. Lots of different diseases are going to spike up in the next coming years

Is anyone having any luck getting a diagnosis? I still can’t. I’m three weeks in and the cough improved slowly over 4 days and I really felt like I was gradually on the mend. But then it suddenly kicked off again and now I’m back to being short of breath constantly, uncontrollable coughing fits where I can’t breathe and projectile vomiting after each coughing fit. It is utterly miserable.

My earliest memory is having whooping cough aged 3. My Mum didn't vaccinate me for anything - apart from Mumps I've had it all.

Could you ask the GP about codeine? It really does relax a cough. Back in the day it was in cough syrups, that's why addicts were swigging it.

Thank you. I’ve already got codeine (had a load in the cupboard I was prescribed for something last year and never took). It does seem to help the cough subside enough to sleep for a few hours at night but then I wake up retching/vomiting/gasping for breath as soon as it wears off.

I'm about 6 weeks in since the cough started, went to the doc after 2 weeks and was given anti biotics. Called the Dr back to say I'd completed the course but was still coughing, he said the cough can last up to 3 months after treatment! They sent me for a chest xray which was fine, told me to come back in 4 weeks if I still have the cough! You could have pushed me over with a feather when the doc said whooping cough, in 41!

I’m in month 4 of whooping cough - was also signed off for weeks where I was throwing up all day or fainting so couldn’t function.

A curse on every one of the fucking anti vaxxers who scared people into not having vaccines anymore. Babies are dying now. I’m so fucking angry about it I could scream 🤬

Same. Furious with them, a little bit because I feel so sorry for myself because this is hell, but mainly because of the senseless deaths of little babies who had no choice or control over any of this, and all the babies and little children who must be so so sick with this. If it’s doing this to me then I can only imagine the awful effect it must have on someone so much smaller.

@Myridiculousstomach absolutely - the horror of a parent watching their child cough until they stop breathing is impossible to imagine 😢

I'm almost certain my 5yo contracted whooping cough recently and wanted to share my experience for others as it would have helped me to read it (as it has done reading this thread and others.)

After a few days of fever, tiredness, headaches and a mild cough subsided, a horrible cough that came in waves at night time and almost like clockwork, replaced it. It also came about anytime he physically exerted himself. Although we kept him off school whilst he was feverish, once it just seemed to be a cough, we packed him back off to school.

Gradually over 5 or 6 days the cough started to improve (I'm sure thanks to him being vaccinated it was a mild case), but having never really heard much about whooping cough before, I finally caught a news story about the uptick in cases and everything seemed to line up, including the fact that no one had yet caught the same thing in the household. Whooping cough has a much longer "incubation" period than viral infections it seems.

I stopped him from attending school the following day and made a GP appointment. The GP barely listened to me when I tried to explain, just listened to his chest, said he thought he may have a very mild infection and gave him some antibiotics. He said "there's lots of this sort of thing I've seen recently." I asked him whether he could attend school as by then he seemed fairly well other than the night bouts of coughing. The doctor advised waiting 48 hours before sending him back. When I mentioned whooping cough he said "well could be", and that was that.

Waiting at the chemists whilst we picked up the antibiotics was another young child who was coughing virtually non-stop, the very distinctive whooping style cough. The waiting area was full of elderly and vulnerable people. I hate to think how many people my son may have infected in the 6 days or so before I made the connection, and how many people this child might have made ill!

Thankfully my son's all improved, but his symptoms subsided around 9 days ago, and a couple of days ago I started to have a fever myself. My 2 yo and my wife both seem to have avoided it, likely due being vaccinated much more recently than me. I purchased a COVID testing kit to rule that out as the symptoms seemed fairly similar for me. After getting a negative test I made a phone appointment with the GP. She was absolutely dead set against prescribing me antibiotics to begin with and seemed very dismissive of the idea of it being whooping cough, despite the prevelance and the timeline with my son's illness. I'm not the kind of person to cry wolf and I have a decent track record when it comes to diagnosing all manner of weird stuff thanks to the internet (aware that must be a GPs worse nightmare). I have suffered in silence before but this time I was very keen to try and do everything I could NOT to spend the next 100 days coughing so I made my point more forcefully. The doctor relented and sounded angry and resigned. Goodness knows what's going on behind the scenes.

I'm hoping at least as I have the antibiotics whilst in the beginning stages that it will do something to assist me in the long term and mean that at least I'll know I'm not infectious to others.

Goodness knows what you have to do to get referred to testing services. When the government figures are published for April I'll be shocked if they don't show a huge spike, even despite the lack of testing. I'll be shocked if there is not a vast increase in the number of deaths in babies and infants too.

It beggars belief to me that the government has been so slow to react to this - even just with some more advisory notices. You'd think post-covid we'd have learnt some lessons and would be far more agile in dealing with this kind of thing. Goodness knows what affect whooping cough will have on people who have suffered lung damage and long term affects from COVID - until this year the sample size for that hasn't been very large.

Sorry for the long post, just feeling a bit despondent!

There have been news reports of pharmacists saying clarithromycin is in short supply and asking for permission to give alternatives to patients needing to start treatment quickly. Some comments from pharmacists saying the government isn't responding properly.

@Spendonsend they are definitely not responding properly and I think the numbers @WhoopingCough will be under reported, just like you I had to keep going back to get the baby tested and they finally listened.

Some people would have not returned but I kept insisting and recording them both coughing was so helpful to get them diagnosed but it was too late for them to get the antibiotics!

Very disappointing!

Just catching up on the messages from my original post .It seems to be really every where .Horrible to read the stories of people not being treated properly .I was very lucky to get a diagnosis quickly. I am now in week 11 and still have the cough and my sleep pattern has been really affected .Due back at work next month by which time i will have been off nearly four mths on ssp which has not been fun .Feel very angry towards the person who gave it me because it makes you feel so ill there is no way you cannot know you are potentially contagious .

I'm waiting for a blood test result, but I am on about week 5 of it. I've also had a chest x Ray which was clear. The worst of the coughing has stopped, but is anyone else finding that their voice is affected? Mine sounds a bit weird and at times just cuts out altogether.
I'm so fed up of it. I'm not prone to any sort of chest problems so this has come out of the blue.