Vaccination warning as whooping cough kills five babies
FIVE babies aged under three months have died after whooping cough infections surged to the worst levels for at least a decade.
More than 2,700 cases were reported in the first three months of this year – over triple the total for the whole of 2023.
The UK Health Security Agency said that cases tend to peak every three to five years but they plummeted during the pandemic so a peak was now well overdue.
Defence
The last cyclical peak was in 2016 but 2024 is already exceeding it, more in line with a large 2012 outbreak that led to the use of vaccines for expectant mothers.
Jabs are also offered for babies but uptake declined from 74.7% in December 2017 to 59.5% in December 2023.
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, UKHSA’s consultant epidemiologist, said: “Vaccination remains the best defence against whooping cough and it is vital that pregnant women and young infants receive their vaccines at the right time.
“Whooping cough can affect people of all ages but for very young babies it can be extremely serious. Our thoughts and condolences are with those families who have so tragically lost their baby.”
Whooping cough or pertussis is known as the “100-day cough” after the time symptoms can last.
It is caused by a bacterial infection of the lungs and early signs are similar to a cold, followed by coughing bouts that can each last a few minutes. Babies may make a “whoop” as they gasp for breath.
Just over half the recorded cases from January to March were in people aged 15 and older but babies and infants are at highest risk of severe complications and death. Some 108 cases have been recorded this year in babies under three months, compared with 48 in all of 2023 and just two in 2022.
There have been 26 deaths of infants under one since 2013, when jabs were introduced in pregnancy. Inoculation is recommended for pregnant women, ideally between 20 to 32 weeks, and passes on some protection to their baby.
Spreading
Babies are given three doses of a combined jab including whooping cough at eight, 12 and 16 weeks.
It is generally treated with antibiotics, which may not reduce symptoms but can prevent spread.
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis urged: “It is vital that families come forward to get the protection they need” while Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that this year’s whooping cough toll might be the worst in four decades.