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Pertussis
Find most of the information you need in these resources --->
Always refer to your local signed PGD's in practice, and remember the Green Book takes priority over the SPmC - and sometimes WHO takes priority over the Green Book! They don't always say the same!
Other useful links and further reading:
Healthcare staff vaccination guidance and training slide sets (scroll down a bit) - training resources updated 5th Aug 2024 Have YOU checked your own vaccine status as a HCP?
Statistics: Pertussis: guidance, data and analysis. The symptoms, diagnosis, management, surveillance and epidemiology of pertussis (whooping cough).
Interesting US study on perceptions of midwives
Resources for the maternal vaccination programme (including a nice poster with some very cute kids on there :-) !!)
Useful and informative TOP TIPS article from July 2024 emphasising some key points about Pertussis vaccination and also management of the disease.
Recent Updates & News
10th April 2025: Pertussis epidemiology in England 2024 and 2025 reports updated: Find the number of laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis in England in 2024 and 2025 here.
13th Feb: Pertussis epidemiology stats for 24-25 have been updated: In England there were 14,905 laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis between January and December 2024.
22nd Jan 2025: The routine imms schedule has been updated to reflect a change to the use of REPEVAX rather than Boostrix-IPV at 3 years and 4 months.
5th Dec 2024: The Pertussis stats are in! In England, provisionally there were 14,453 laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis reported to the UKHSA between January and October 2024, with 555 cases in January 2024, increasing by month to 3,046 in May and then decreasing by month to 509 in October. This compares with just 856 laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis reported throughout 2023. There have been 10 sad deaths in infants who developed pertussis between January and November 2024. Whilst monthly case numbers in 2024 have fallen since May, pertussis activity remains high so keep looking for those vaccination opportunities! To put this in perspective, in the 12 years prior to the introduction of maternal pertussis vaccination in October 2012, 63 deaths occurred in babies aged under one year with confirmed pertussis. Since the introduction of pertussis vaccination in pregnancy, from 2013 to the end of October 2024, there have been 31 deaths in babies with confirmed pertussis who were all too young to be fully protected by infant vaccination. Sadly, this includes the most recent 10 deaths. Of the 31 infants that died, 25 had mothers who were not vaccinated in pregnancy.
4th Dec: Intranasal pertussis vaccine? BPZE1 is designed to overcome deficiencies of current pertussis vaccines, including poor durability of protection and failure to prevent nasopharyngeal B. pertussis colonisation that leads to escape mutants and transmission to vulnerable infants. Looks set to be entering phase 3 trials in 2025...
Update as of September 2024 data: In England, provisionally there were 12,200 laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis reported to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) between January and July 2024 with 555 cases in January 2024 increasing by month to 3,051 in May. Of the 12,200 cases confirmed between January and July 2024, around half (6,860 cases, 56.2%) were in those aged 15 years or older with 20.1% in children aged between 10 and 14 years (2,458 cases) and 11.7% (1,431) in children aged 5 to 9 years.
This article about Pertussis uptake was published in the BMJ on 29th August. Here's an extract that forms a good reflection opportunity: "Ongoing analysis of data from England shows that whooping cough vaccine, when given at the right time in pregnancy, provides 92% protection against infant death. Yet its uptake in England, from a high of 72.6% in March 2017, has now declined to 58.9%". We MUST get this higher!!!
15th August 2024 Guidance for healthcare professionals on the public health management of pertussis updated: ‘Guidance on the management of cases of pertussis in England during the re-emergence of pertussis in 2024’ and ‘Testing for pertussis in primary care’, added ‘Pertussis cases in healthcare workers and of pertussis clusters in healthcare settings surveillance form’ and ‘Severe or fatal pertussis disease infants and children surveillance form’
8th AUGUST 2024 A 10th Baby has died of pertussis in the UK. 10,000 cases reported since this outbreak that began Nov 2023 (although due to under-reporting is probably WAY higher). So sad.
5th August 2024 Pertussis training resources added to gov.uk
JULY 2024 Really sad. We are up to 9 infant deaths of Pertussis since Nov 2023 now. THIS IS A POIGNANT REMINDER OF WHY WE ARE DOING THIS JOB!!
JUNE 2024 Professional guidance updated on occupational health pertussis programme and maternal programme
JUNE 2024 Green book chapter 24 update in preparation for maternal vaccine change to Adacel on July 1st. Management of outbreaks advice also updated
JUNE 2024 Government letter sent out regarding move to Adacel
MAY 2024 News reports coming through of 5 babies dying of Pertussis in the UK in first quarter of 2024. Cases in general on an upward trend. Vaccine uptake was also reported as 'not doing well' by late 2023.
Bits and bobs to casually drop into conversation
Did you know....
According to the WHO:
Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. In 2018, there were more than 151 000 cases of pertussis globally
The disease is most dangerous in infants under 3 months old, and is a significant cause of disease and death in this age group.
People with pertussis are most contagious up to about 3 weeks after the cough begins, and many children who contract the infection have coughing spells that last 4 to 8 weeks
Some babies who get pertussis won’t cough at all. Instead, they will simply stop breathing or suffer with apnoea spells.
In the 12 years prior to the introduction of maternal pertussis vaccination in October 2012, 63 deaths occurred in babies aged under one year with confirmed pertussis. Since the introduction of pertussis vaccination in pregnancy, from 2013 to the end of June 2024, there have been 30 deaths in babies with confirmed pertussis who were all too young to be fully protected by infant vaccination. Sadly, this includes the 9 deaths in infants who had contracted pertussis between January and July 2024. Of the 30 infants that died, 24 had mothers who were not vaccinated in pregnancy.
