Health officials have urged pregnant women to get vaccinated after new data showed the number of confirmed cases of whooping cough in England passed 10,000 in the year to June. The warning came as officials said another infant had died after contracting whooping cough, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease in the current outbreak in England to 10. While most cases were in those aged 15 years or older, more than 300 have been reported in babies under three months old who are at greatest risk from the infection.
Confirmed cases in the second quarter, from April to June, exceeded those in any quarter of the last major whooping cough outbreak in 2012. The current outbreak is thought to have began in November 2023, with the first infant death confirmed in December. The bacterial infection, also known as pertussis, affects the lungs and breathing tubes.
Whooping cough is sometimes called the “100-day cough” because of how long it can take to recover from it, and it spreads very easily. The first signs of whooping cough are similar to a cold and can include a runny nose and sore throat, but after about 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” or have difficulty breathing after a bout of coughing, though not all babies make this noise.
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