WA doctors may see more patients coming through their door to ask about a pertussis booster, on the back of a new campaign to raise vaccination rates before the next epidemic hits.
Whooping cough epidemics occur every three to five years and the most recent Australian epidemic peaked in late 2015, with experts predicting the country is now overdue for a major outbreak and infections could surge during the upcoming summer months.
Infectious disease specialists say the threat is further compounded by low uptake of whooping cough boosters, with research suggesting more than 80% of Australian adults cannot recall having received the booster, which is recommended at least every 10 years.
The Perth-based Immunisation Foundation of Australia is running the country’s first-ever whooping cough awareness day on November 8, to shine a spotlight on the threat posed by the infection and the need for people to be up-to-date with vaccination.
In Australia, the whooping cough booster comes as a combination vaccine that also protects against diphtheria and tetanus, both of which also require boosters at least every 10 years to remain effective.
The immunisation foundation’s co-founders Catherine and Greg Hughes lost their four-week-old baby son Riley to whooping cough complications in 2015.
Part of the new campaign’s message will be encouraging people to talk to their GP or pharmacist about whether they need a jab, particularly to keep newborn babies safe when they are too young to be vaccinated.
The foundation is also launching the Riley Hughes Memorial Award, which will be presented in February next year to support whooping cough-related research.
Funds will be awarded to an Australian research team for a project which increases understanding of the disease, or contributes to developing more effective treatments and vaccines, to ultimately prevent suffering and death.
Although the devastating impact of whooping cough on babies is now better understood, the foundation says community awareness of the threat that the diseases poses to adults, and the need for boosters, remains concerningly low.
Pertussis is a highly infectious and potentially fatal bacterial infection that attacks the airways, causing uncontrollable coughing and difficulty breathing, sometimes for months on end.
It is more contagious than the flu, measles or COVID and, once infected, a person can remain contagious for three weeks or until they receive a course of antibiotics.
Many people are still unaware that whooping cough is not just a childhood disease, even though more than half of reported cases in Australia occur in adults.
While whooping cough can be fatal in infants, it can also cause serious illness in older children and adults, while people with asthma face a four times greater risk of whooping cough infection and have a higher risk of going to hospital.
Vaccination is especially important for babies, pregnant women and people in contact with infants, however boosters are recommended for everyone to reduce the spread of whooping cough.
The campaign will urge people to check their vaccination status with their doctor, pharmacist or using their Medicare app.
But the foundation argues that antenatal care providers need to be recommending boosters to every pregnant woman, and antenatal hospitals need to have midwives who can vaccinate readily available, rather than sending people away to their GP, as this can lead to confusion or people forgetting.
In particular, people who have close, regular contact with a newborn need to make sure they are up to date on their vaccination.
For more details of the campaign go to www.ifa.org.au/whoopingcoughday