Tourist town hit by whooping cough cluster

Nine cases of whooping cough have hit a popular WA tourist town within the past two months.

The illness, which can be fatal for very young babies and children, can be vaccinated against, and news of the cluster of Margaret River cases comes as it was revealed the tourist town was a “hot spot” for low vaccination rates in the under 5s.

WA Country Health public health physician Dr Clare Huppatz predicted there were likely to be more people suffering from whooping cough in the region who had not been diagnosed.

“What we see in Margaret River, is what we see in most of the State, and that is from time to time we have an increase or cluster of cases,” she said. “That is because it is a disease which is easily transmitted from droplets spread through coughing.

“So people who are not vaccinated or waning immunity are more likely to get it.”

Under the WA schedule, children are due to be vaccinated between 6 and 8 weeks old, 4 months and 6 months, before they have a booster shot at three-and-half years old and in Year 8.

Pregnant women can get a free vaccine shot during their third trimester.

Dr Huppatz said although the vaccine was not “perfect” it was proven to help stop the spread among infants.

“Those newborn kids, who cannot be vaccinated, can end up in hospital and with a serious disease,” she said. “So everyone getting vaccinated helps protect them.”

Dr Huppatz said people needed to look out for the symptoms of whooping cough.

“It starts off like a cold, but then you get a cough, which is usually in bouts,” she said.

“If people think they have it, then they need to see their GP, because there is an antibiotic and can be treated in five days.”

In March 2018, Health Department figures showed the number of cases of whooping cough in WA had fallen 20 per cent since the tragic death of baby Riley Hughes three years ago.

Riley was only 32 days old when he died in March 2015 from whooping cough complications, prompting his parents to successfully campaign for a free vaccine for pregnant women in WA.

At the time, Riley’s mum Catherine Hughes, director of the Immunisation Foundation of Australia, said it was reassuring whooping cough in WA was declining.

But she said no one could afford to be complacent because the disease still posed a real risk to babies and young children, particularly if they were not immunised.

“I suspect that rates of adult vaccination against whooping cough are probably as high as they’ve ever been,” Mrs Hughes said.

“We know so many parents who ensure visitors are up-to-date with their whooping cough vaccines before visiting their newborns, so it’s become the new normal and it’s something we definitely did when it came to the birth of Riley’s little sister Lucy.”

Mrs Hughes said the vaccine had helped protect many newborns from the disease and she hoped that would be Riley’s legacy.

“It’s been about three years to the day since we spoke up about vaccination after Riley passed away in our arms,” she said.