Whooping cough

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Whooping cough, also known as pertussis is a very infectious disease that can cause death in babies, especially those under six months old. For older children and adults, whooping cough is not usually serious.

Children are vaccinated against whooping cough at 2, 3 and 4 months, and again before they start school. Before the vaccine was introduced there were often over 100,000 cases per year in England and Wales, but after it was introduced in the 1950s the rate fell dramatically to about 2,000 cases a year.

However, people still get whooping cough and babies still die from it so, it is very important that children are immunised. If people do not get their babies immunised it could lead to an epidemic.

Symptoms
Causes
Diagnosis
Treatment
Prevention
Complications