Whooping Cough (pertussis)

Whooping Cough

Being an allied health worker I was required to have my vaccinations up to date and have some vaccinations that were not standard eg hepatitis b, I even had to have a Mantoux test for tuberculosis. The vaccination that no one told me I needed a booster for was Whooping cough (pertussis). I was immunized for whooping cough as a baby.

Two years ago there was some publicity given to an outbreak of whooping cough through several Perth boarding schools. Big deal, I lived in a small country town 3 hours from Perth.  Then a few months later while in the first trimester of pregnancy I was diagnosed with whooping cough. I thought that I just had the flu with a bad cough but the symptom that made the doctor send me for tests (vacuum cleaner thing up the nose and then a 2 week wait for the results) was the fact that I was coughing so much I threw up.

Let me tell you that whooping cough and morning sickness are not a good combination. In early pregnancy whooping cough is not considered to big risk the baby but whooping cough in the last trimester is a potential risk to the baby.

Haydon was working away so I had to fend for myself and at one stage I was hospitalized because I was too sick to look after myself. I was off work for nearly 4 weeks (there goes the sick leave) and had to start back part-time because of the exhaustion. Also before I received my diagnosis I did a home visit to a family with a young baby. Ringing a mother to tell her that you have exposed her 8 month old baby to whooping cough is not a pleasant experience. Luckily for me she was very nice about it and the child did not get whooping cough.

Not long after this the WA health department offered whooping cough vaccinations to some of its staff and I think that they may now be offering vaccinations to certain groups of the population.
You may like to consider talking to your doctor to see if you should consider having a booster shot for whooping cough.