Map shows ‘100-day cough’ hotspots as UK cases surge 40% in a week
New figures suggest the resurgence of whooping cough is going strong and could be getting worse.
Health authorities recently confirmed there were close to twice as many cases of the disease in January and February alone as there were in the whole of 2023.
Also known as the ‘100-day cough’, or pertussis, the highly contagious bacterial infection spreads through coughs and sneezes.
In most people it causes prolonged and sometimes painful coughing, although in infants it can lead to serious complications requiring hospital treatment.
One baby died of the disease late last year.
Confirmed cases in England, which totalled 858 last year, hit 555 in January alone and rose to 913 in February.
The statistic has not been updated since, however figures for the number of suspected cases reported by doctors in March was 2,599.
Although many of these cases are later confirmed not to be whooping cough, the UK Health Security Agency says the difference is not substantial.
Doctors reported a total of 824 cases in the week leading up to April 14, a 40% rise from the previous week’s tally of 595.
A recent peak of 825 was reached in the week leading up to March 24.
The surge has been linked to a steep post-Covid drop in the number of pregnant women accepting a vaccine that protects their babies against the disease which was introduced in 2012.
Uptake dropped from 70% in September 2017 to 58% in September 2023, falling as low as 20% or 30% in some London communities, UKHSA figures show.
According to Metro.co.uk calculations, some areas appear to be affected worse than others – although overall case numbers are too low to draw solid conclusions.
What is whooping cough?
Whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes which spreads very easily.
It can initially seem like a cold, with symptoms like a runny nose and sore throat among the first to appear.
But later, it can develop into bouts of coughing that last for several minutes – and get worse when the sufferer is trying to sleep at night.
The name comes from the gasp for breath between coughs, which can make a ‘whoop’ sound.
Young children may turn blue or grey due to difficulty breathing.
The disease can last for weeks or even months – hence ‘the 100-day cough’ nickname.
Wales reported 84 cases in the latest week, which was the highest number of cases per 100,000 people in any region south of the Scottish border (2.7).
The next highest were reported in the South West (125 cases, or 2.2 per 100,000) and the North East (93, or 2.1 per 100,000).
The lowest were the West Midlands (44, or 0.7 per 100,000) and the North West (61 cases, or 0.8 per 100,000), while the rest of the country hovered in between.
Thanks to strong overall uptake of the vaccine among children of all ages, cases are still historically far below the heyday of the virus.
Cases began dropping rapidly after the 1950s, when around 120,000 cases were reported per year.
Scarlet fever – another disease associated with Victorian times which has made a recent comeback – is affecting a lot more children, with around 1300 cases per week reported in March.
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