Parents and carers have been urged to be vigilant and check their children’s health with an increasing whooping cough epidemic in Scone.
A number of cases in the past two months presenting to Scone Medical Practice have urged a warning that the severe infection can lead to serious illness and has been passing through the local child and adult population.
Whooping cough, scientifically known as pertussis, is a severe respiratory infection that is life threatening to babies and is spread through infectious coughing in the first three weeks of the illness.
At least one case of whooping cough is seen at Scone Medical Practice each week and staff have seen regular cases throughout the past five years.
Hunter New England Health (HNEH) records indicated a large number of cases in the Upper Hunter cluster area last year, which has been the case for the past three years.
In the HNEH area in 2011 there were 762 notified cases of the infection with tests confirmed, with 770 in 2010 and 1468 in 2009.
The Upper Hunter Cluster saw 48 official notifications, which was an increase from 39 in 2010 and 46 notifications in 2009.
Characterised by an obvious serious cough, the infection has most commonly been seen in babies and young people in the Upper Hunter, however can affect older children and adults.
Scone Medical Practice immunisation nurse Debbie Phelps said whooping cough was one of the worst contagious infections around at present.
“It’s quite prevalent at the moment, for example, we had a family of four infected with the illness just this week,” she said.
Ms Phelps reminded people that the immunisation is free for parents and grandparents who have children under one year of age.
“We are really encouraging people to take advantage of this and have all close contacts immunised as babies are the most affected.”
According to HNEH the best prevention is to have regular immunisations whether for a baby, child, teenager or adult and all people who are in regular contact with a young baby should be vaccinated.
Hunter New England Health public health physician Tony Merritt said it was really important to continue to teach people about the numbers and severity of the infectious illness and remind them there are a few simple steps that can be taken to reduce these numbers.
“The two main points are to prevent through immunisation and if you have symptoms seek medical advice,” he said.
“Standard immunisation can start at six weeks old or two months, four months, six months followed by a booster at four years and again when entering high school.
“Adults who have close contact with young children, are involved in caring for a young child or are planning to have a baby are also encouraged to have a booster vaccine.”
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