Fears for children over whooping cough outbreak

PARENTS have been warned to vaccinate their children against whooping cough after more than a dozen suspected cases were discovered in Limerick and Clare.

Five of the cases in the Mid-Western Health Board (MWHB) region have been confirmed, in children aged between seven weeks and 17 years of age.

Two of them are children in Co Clare and the other three affected patients are from Limerick. Another eight suspected cases have been reported, most of them in Clare.

The illness may last several weeks and can lead to brain damage in very rare and severe cases.

In 2002, 131 cases of whooping cough were notified to the National Disease Surveillance Centre. More than half of them were among children younger than four years, with 15% among people 15 or older.

The MWHB advised parents to have children vaccinated, if they have not done so, and to finish incomplete vaccination courses.

“Vaccination provides the best protection for all children between two months and seven years of age. Even if a vaccinated child does get the infection, it is likely to be less severe than in one who is not vaccinated,” said an MWHB spokesperson.

Whooping cough is included in the five-in-one vaccine usually given at two months, four months and six months of age under the Primary Childhood Immunisation Programme available free from family doctors, and also the four-in-one booster given at four to six years.

Affected children should not attend crèches, summer camps or schools until they have completed a course of antibiotics, as the illness is infectious.