Is it whooping cough or just a cold?

Whooping cough symptoms

At first, whooping cough may seem like a normal cough but you can recognise it by the following characteristics:

• Whooping cough lasts longer - where a normal cough may last just a few days or weeks, whooping cough may last several months.

• Whooping cough usually has several uncontrolled coughing spasms which can be quite severe and cause you to be sick.

• There is a 'whooping' sound when inhaling compared to normal coughs - although this only happens in around one half of cases.

• Choking and face colour changes - red or blue - are more common with whooping cough than with normal coughs.

• Breathing difficulties are also more common with whooping cough than with normal cough.

• The cough sometimes produces a thick mucus which can cause you to be sick.

• Sometimes the force of coughing can cause light bleeding under the under the whites of the eyes and skin.

Some children may also have red faces from the strain of coughing, periods of shortness of breath, and briefly turn blue - but this is restored shortly.

The symptoms will become less severe and occur less frequently over time, but it can take months to stop completely.

To ease the symptoms you can:

• Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids.

• Rest and get sleep.

• Take painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen - these may speed up recovery as well as reduce signs of the infection such as high temperature. Do not give aspirin to children under the age of 16 years.

• Wash your hands and face regularly, put used tissues in the bin and wash clothes.

What about the whooping cough vaccine?

Timely vaccination in pregnancy and in infancy are both important to protect vulnerable young babies from serious disease. Of the thirty-three infants who died of whooping cough since 2013, 27 had mothers who had not received the jab in pregnancy.

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, Consultant Epidemiologist at UK Health Security Agency, says: "Vaccination remains the best defence against whooping cough and it is vital that pregnant women and young infants receive their vaccines at the right time."

All pregnant women are offered a whooping cough vaccine to protect babies and young children from whooping cough, ideally between 20 and 32 weeks. This passes protection to their baby in the womb so that they are protected from birth in the first months of their life when they are most vulnerable and before they can receive their own vaccines.

All babies are given three doses of the 6-in-1 vaccine at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age to protect against whooping cough and other serious diseases such as diphtheria and polio with a pre-school booster offered at 3 years 4 months. This booster doesn't offer lifelong protection, but can help prevent children getting whooping cough when young and more vulnerable to the effect of infection.

NHS England is helping parents to vaccinate their children with initiatives such as hosting extra clinics, catch up opportunities in schools, and localised outreach projects to target low uptake areas across the country. This has had some success with MMR1 uptake stabilising at 91.8% - but that’s still not enough to prevent outbreaks.