Rising levels of whooping cough – warning for babies

On Friday Dr Ivan Muscat, the Hospital’s consultant microbiologist, urged pregnant Islanders to take up the offer of vaccinations in order to protect their babies until they have their childhood immunisations.

• Whooping cough is caused by a bacterium called Bordetella pertussis, which infects the lining of the airways, mainly the windpipe and the two airways that branch off from it to the lungs

• If the bacteria make contact with your airways, this leads to: a build-up of thick mucus – which causes the intense bouts of coughing as your body tries to expel it and swollen airways – which makes breathing more difficult and causing the “whoop” sound as you gasp for breath after coughing

• People with whooping cough are infectious from six days after exposure to the bacteria to three weeks after the “whooping” cough begins.

The highly contagious infection usually begins with a persistent dry and irritating cough that progresses to intense bouts of coughing. The gasping for breath after one of these coughing bouts causes a distinctive whooping noise, which is how the condition gets its name

Dr Muscat said whooping cough, which is also known as pertussis, can be deadly in newborns as they have a vulnerable immune system meaning they are likely to develop other complications.

He added that very young babies also tended to hold the breath instead of coughing which could be ‘very dangerous’.

In 2012 that there was a large outbreak of whooping cough in England which was paralleled in Jersey. It led to a vaccination programme being rolled out for pregnant women.

Dr Muscat said: ‘It was noticed at the time that one of whooping coughs major effects was causing severe illness and deaths in very young infants, in particular infants under two months of age who were too young to be vaccinated with the pertussis vaccination.

‘All babies receive a certain amount of protective antibodies from their mothers in the later stages of pregnancy which protects them just after their birth. But whooping cough immunity wanes with age and so many infants were not getting any protective antibodies from their mothers.’

Dr Muscat said due to the uptake in pregnant women being vaccinated, the number of infant deaths in England dropped from 14 in 2012 to eight in 2013. He added that he was unaware of any deaths in Jersey in recent years due to the infection.

Levels of whooping cough have now decreased since 2012 although they still remain higher than 2011. Dr Muscat said that the laboratory deals with between one and two samples a month, but stressed that this only reflected a small percentage of the overall picture as not everyone recognises that they have the infection.

He added: ‘We’ve not noticed evidence to suggest that there is any particular peak in pertussis activity.

‘What we do have currently is continuing background levels which were higher than what were present in 2011.’

Dr Muscat urged pregnant women to have the vaccination to further push down the rates of whooping cough in Jersey.

He said: ‘We continue to urge pregnant mums to take up the offer of the pertussis vaccination between 28 and 32 weeks. The vaccination is extremely safe and offers protection until the infants get their childhood vaccinations which are very important.’

• Worldwide, whooping cough affects 48.5 million people annually

• In 2013 it resulted in about 61,000 deaths – down from 138,000 deaths in 1990

• Pertussis is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths world-wide with 90 per cent of all cases occur in developing countries.

• Before vaccines, an average of 178,171 cases were reported in the US, with peaks reported every two to five years; more than 93% of reported cases occurred in children under 10 years of age.