Pertussis also called whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the airways that can cause illness in people of all ages. The bacteria that causes whooping cough mainly spreads through the air in tiny particles or droplets of fluid that are made when people who are infected cough or sneeze. If your baby or child catches whooping cough, it can cause them to cough violently. It affects their airways and lungs and can make it hard to breathe. The cough can last for several months. Whooping cough can also lead to lung infection or pneumonia, and in rare cases, brain damage or death. Vaccination is the best way to protect your child from whooping cough. Pertussis vaccines available in Australia for children are combination vaccines that also protect against diptheria and tetanus, and in some vaccines, polio, HIB, and Hepatitis B. Combination vaccines protect your child from multiple diseases with fewer injections and less pain and stress for your child. Under the National Immunisation Program, children receive the free pertussis-containing vaccine at two months, four months, six months, 18 months, four years, and between 11 to 13 years of age to provide the best possible protection. If you are pregnant, you are recommended to get the whooping cough vaccine to protect your baby from whooping cough in their first few weeks of life. The best time to get this vaccine is between 20 and 32 weeks of pregnancy to maximise the protection for your baby. The vaccine contains an inactive part of the whooping cough bacteria that trains your child's immune system to recognise and fight the infection. If they then catch whooping cough, their symptoms will generally be mild and they will have strong protection against the severe complications of the disease. The effectiveness of the whooping cough vaccine declines into adolescents. That's why it's recommended to vaccinate again between the ages of 11 to 13 years and when pregnant or as a household contact or carer for young babies to reduce the risk of passing whooping cough on. Your child may experience mild reactions to the vaccine, which usually disappear within a few days. Common reactions include redness, swelling, and soreness at the injection site. Less common reactions include a mild fever and tiredness. More severe reactions are very rare. The pertussis vaccine reduced the rate of illness and hospitalisation from whooping cough in Australia. Outbreaks still occur every three to four years, and infection is most common and severe in people who are not vaccinated.
In this video, Dr Ketaki Sharma shares how you can protect your child from whooping cough with free vaccines available under the National Immunisation Program.