Whooping cough cases in Australia hit record high
GPs are urged to ensure patients have had their vaccines and boosters —as ‘staggeringly high’ case numbers soar to a record-breaking 41,772 so far this year.
A whooping cough epidemic of unprecedented proportions is spreading through Australia —with more than 45,000 cases expected to be diagnosed by the end of the year.
According to data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, notifications of pertussis have reached their highest point since a vaccine was developed.
So far this year, as of 8 November —there have been 41,772 cases of the highly infectious disease in Australia, or around 130 confirmed cases recorded every day on average.
That is compared to just 2454 cases in the entirety of 2023, 482 in 2022, and surpassing the previous record of 38,748 in 2011.
With just 53 days left of the year —the Immunisation Foundation of Australia (IFA) is now warning that those numbers could surpass 45,000 cases by the end of the year.
According to the IFA’s latest report card, released on Friday 8/11, the major spike is in school-aged children, with 40% of cases recorded in 10- to 14-year-olds.
Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Child and Young Person’s Health, Dr Tim Jones told newsGP he is ‘deeply concerned about the situation’.
‘There are a lot of respiratory illnesses hammering our community right now but, out of all of them, whooping cough would be the most dangerous to our under 3-month-old age range, and that’s the group that we’re fearful for at the moment’, he said.
‘It’s definitely shocking, 15 years into being a doctor now and I have never seen a number like this, even close to that as a national number.
‘It is a staggeringly high outbreak’. (newsGP)
