Leicestershire picture after five babies found to have died from Whooping Cough in England

Cases of whooping cough are continuing across the country and babies have died. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) revealed this week that five infants had died from the disease in the first quarter of the year – between January and March.

Whooping cough - sometimes known as the “100-day cough” - is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes. It spreads very easily and can sometimes cause serious problems. Babies are the most at risk of severe complications from the disease.

Suspected cases have increased across Leicestershire as well with 75 across the city and county, up from just seven in mid-February. Charnwood is the hardest hit with 14 possible cases reported up to Sunday, April 21 – the most recent data available.

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The borough was closely followed by Hinckley and Bosworth with 13 and Leicester which had 12. Melton has had nine reports, Harborough eight, North West Leicestershire eight. Blaby comes next with six suspected cases and Oadby and Wigston has the least with five.

Most areas showed very few infections for the last week – between zero and two. However, Melton reported six possible infections for the week ending April 21.

Local suspected cases remain low compared to many areas of the country, however. Up to April 21, GPs had diagnosed 6,815 suspected cases in England and another 1,198 in Wales. Nottingham has seen the highest number of suspected cases with 187, followed by Vale of Glamorgan (150), Cardiff (147), Swansea (138), and Northumberland (135).

GPs are required to send to the UKHSA every time they diagnose a case of what they believe to be whooping cough. These are then tested to see if they are the disease, so the actual case numbers could be lower.

The UKHSA also released national data for confirmed cases this week. The data comprises of just the first three months of the year.

It shows 1,319 lab-confirmed cases in March. That follows 556 cases in January and 918 in February, bringing the total to 2,793 in 2024.

For the same period, 4,853 suspected cases were reported in England, which means about 58 per cent were later confirmed by lab tests. Across the same months last year, there had been just 30 lab-confirmed cases.

In most cases, whooping cough will present symptoms very similar to a common cold, such as a runny nose and a sore throat, but these symptoms will intensify over the course of a week. Around seven days after being infected with whooping cough, longer coughing bouts will take hold and are most common during the night. As well as this, the intensity of the coughing bouts can cause breathing difficulties and produce thick mucus.

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, consultant epidemiologist for the UKHSA, 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.

“Pregnant women are offered a whooping cough vaccine in every pregnancy, ideally between 20 and 32 weeks. This passes protection to their baby in the womb so that they are protected from birth in the first months of their life when they are most vulnerable and before they can receive their own vaccines.

“All babies are given three doses of the six-in-one jab at eight, 12 and 16 weeks of age to protect against whooping cough and other serious diseases such as diphtheria and polio with a pre-school booster offered at 3 years 4 months.

“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.”

Four in 10 expectant mothers do not take the maternal pertussis – the clinical name of the disease – vaccination, while about one in 12 infants do not receive the six-in-one jab by their first birthday.

While around half of cases confirmed in England up to March this year were in teenagers and adults aged 15 and over (51 per cent, or 1,420 cases), 108 were seen in babies under the age of three months who are most at risk of severe illness and too young to be fully vaccinated. That is more than double the number of cases across the whole of last year in infants of that age (48).

NHS National Medical Director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “With cases of whooping cough continuing to rise sharply across the country, and today’s figures sadly showing five infant deaths, it is vital that families come forward to get the protection they need.

“If you are pregnant and have not been vaccinated yet, or your child is not up-to-date with whooping cough or other routine vaccinations, please contact your GP as soon as possible, and if you or your child show symptoms ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111.”