Who gets whooping cough?
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Who gets whooping cough?
In countries which do not have immunisation, most children develop whooping cough at some stage. In the UK before immunisation was available there was an epidemic every 3-4 years. About 8 in 10 children developed whooping cough by the time they were 5.
After immunisation was introduced in the UK in the 1950s, the number of cases fell greatly. There was a slump in immunisation after a vaccine 'scare' in the late 1970s. This led to 2 further epidemics, each epidemic affecting an estimated 400,000 children. Immunisation rates then went up again, and most children are now immunised. Whooping cough is now uncommon in the UK, but remains a major cause of illness in countries with poor rates of immunisation.
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