Five babies die of whooping cough after surge fuelled by lockdown

Five babies die after whooping cough diagnosis

Five babies have died of whooping cough amid a surge in the disease fuelled by lockdown.

More than 2,700 whooping cough cases have been reported across England so far in 2024, more than three times the amount recorded in the whole of last year.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures show there were 2,793 cases reported to the end of March. This is compared with the 858 cases for the whole of 2023.

The UKHSA said that between January and the end of March, there have been five infant deaths. The deaths follow warnings that cases of whooping cough could reach a 40-year high in 2024.

Whooping cough is a cyclical disease that peaks every 3-5 years. The last cyclical increase occurred in 2016.

Health officials said the suppression of the disease during the pandemic because of lockdown and other restrictions meant a peak year was now “overdue”

UKHSA said: “The impact of the pandemic also means there is reduced immunity in the population.”

Uptake of vaccinations that protect against whooping cough have fallen in recent years across the country – in both the programme for pregnant women and the infant programme.

In March alone, some 1,319 cases were reported, according to the provisional data. The bacterial infection, also known as pertussis, affects the lungs and breathing tubes.

Circulation plunged during pandemic

The disease has spread across Europe during the start of the year after circulation plummeted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that the bloc had seen more cases in the first three months of 2024 than an average year between 2012 and 2019.

It confirmed on Wednesday there had been 11 infant deaths and eight deaths among older adults on the continent.

Whooping cough can be called the “100-day cough” because of how long it can take to recover from it, and it spreads very easily.

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, a UKHSA consultant epidemiologist, said: “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.”

Over the past 11 years there have been 26 deaths of babies from whooping cough. The last major outbreak was in 2012 when 14 deaths were reported in one year.

Since then vaccinations of pregnant women have been introduced, with all the deaths since occurring in those too young for vaccination.

Forty-year peak

Prof Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: “For most adults the whooping cough is not life threatening, though can be very unpleasant.

“This is a chronic repeated bout of coughing which can be so bad that people feel it a struggle to breathe in again.

“It used to be much more common in the last century up until the vaccine was introduced. However, this current year looks like we may see more cases than we have seen in any of the last 40 years.”

Prof Hunter said that a number of factors could be behind the rise in cases, including a drop in vaccine uptake, reduced “population immunity” as a result of a fall in cases linked to social distancing measures during the pandemic, and a “scare over vaccines” in the early 2000s, which led to a group of people aged around 21 who did not complete their vaccination.

He added: “The infection can affect anyone who is not vaccinated and even some that are.

“However, the main risk of death or severe long-term complications is seen in young children, especially those under three months old.

“It is this age group that are most at risk of death and developing longer-term problems such as brain damage. The problem is that this age group is too young for the vaccine in most circumstances.

“That is why we offer vaccine to pregnant women. Not to protect them but to protect their babies during the riskiest first months of life.

“Vaccine uptake in pregnant women has been falling quite markedly in recent years.”

The NHS recommends all pregnant women are vaccinated against whooping cough between 16 and 32 weeks.

Immunity from the jab passes through the placenta to protect newborn babies in their first weeks of life.

When a baby is eight weeks old they are offered the six-in-one vaccine, which includes immunisation against whooping cough.

The second dose of the vaccine is offered at 12 weeks and the third is offered at 16 weeks.

When children are three years and four months they will be offered the four-in-one pre-school booster, which protects against pertussis.

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