Whooping cough still a killer

Even with intensive care and the wonders of modern technology, whooping cough can still kill.

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26th May, 2012

Whooping cough is on the rise again. Between the start of this year and mid-April, there were 1384 notifications of the disease, including 576 confirmed cases, 710 probable, 36 suspect and 72 that were under investigation. In the same period last year, there were just 220 notifications. Whether this is an epidemic or an outbreak depends on who you talk to, but most would agree the figures are too high. On the other hand, such outbreaks of whooping cough aren’t unusual; the disease seems to go in cycles, with outbreaks every four to five years. The reason for this is not clear. It could ...

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