whooping cough cases continue to rise in the city region, NHS Greater Manchester is calling for pregnant women and parents of young children to ensure they are fully vaccinated amid a decline in vaccine uptake.
Since the beginning of 2024, Greater Manchester has seen the number of whooping cough cases steadily increasing, with 400 probable and 126 possible. There are a number of reasons for this, including the falling number of pregnant women and children under 5 being fully vaccinated.
Over the past 10 years the number of children in Greater Manchester receiving all of their whooping cough vaccinations and boosters by the age of 5 has fallen from 97.5% in 2012-2013 to an average of 81.82% at the end of 2023. During January-March 2024 only 52.9% of pregnant women chose to have the whooping cough vaccination.
Whooping cough, clinically known as pertussis, is a bacterial infection which affects the lungs. The first signs of infection are similar to a common cold, with symptoms such as a runny nose and sore throat, but after a week the infection can develop into coughing bouts that last for a few minutes and are typically worse at night. Young babies may also make a distinctive “whoop” sound or have difficulty breathing after coughing. Not all babies make this noise which means whooping cough can be hard to recognise.
In some people, especially in young children, whooping cough can cause severe complications and even death. With whooping cough cases on the rise across England, as well as in many other countries, ensuring babies are vaccinated against the infection is vital.
Pregnant women are also advised to have a whooping cough injection between 16-32 weeks of pregnancy. This means that the baby will be protected from birth through the transfer of antibodies from mum to baby before birth. Whooping cough is one of the illnesses included in the vaccinations given to babies at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 week of age and again in the pre-school booster for children aged 3 years and 4 months.
Dr Claire Lake, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at NHS Greater Manchester said: “With cases rising, it is more important than ever that pregnant women and young infants are fully vaccinated against whooping cough.
“Vaccination remains the best defence against whooping cough. Therefore, it is vital that women are vaccinated during pregnancy, as this means your newborn baby will be protected against becoming unwell and needing hospital care because of whooping cough. It is also important for new parents to ensure their baby receives all their childhood vaccines on time to get the best protection against infectious diseases.
“Whooping cough can affect people of all ages but is particularly serious for very young babies. Simply by being fully vaccinated you are protecting your child against becoming seriously ill or worse, as well as helping reduce the spread of the infection to other children.
“If you are pregnant and haven’t been vaccinated yet, or your child is not up-to-date with whooping cough or their other vaccinations, please contact your GP practice as soon as possible to book an appointment.”
If anyone in a family has symptoms of whooping cough it is important to contact your GP practice or NHS 111. For anyone diagnosed with whooping cough. it is important to stay at home and not to go into work, school or nursery until 48 hours after starting antibiotics (or 3 weeks after symptoms start if they have not had antibiotics). This helps to prevent the spread of infection, especially to vulnerable groups, including infants.
