Vaccination warning as whooping cough kills five babies

FIVE babies aged under three months have died after whooping cough infections surged to the worst levels for at least a decade.

- Hanna Geissler

More than 2,700 cases were reported in the first three months of this year for the whole of 2023.

over triple the total The UK Health Security Agency said that cases tend to peak every three to five years but they plummeted during the pandemic so a peak was now well overdue.

Defence

The last cyclical peak was in 2016 but 2024 is already exceeding it, more in line with a large 2012 outbreak that led to the use of vaccines for expectant mothers.

Jabs are also offered for babies but uptake declined from 74.7% in December 2017 to 59.5% in December 2023.