Whooping cough on the rise
A significant percentage of school-age children with a cough lasting two weeks or more may actually have whooping cough – also known as pertussis. And it can spread to, and be spread by, elerly people who may be in contact with grandchildren.
Whooping cough is a painful disease remembered and experienced by many elderly people when they were children and before vaccines to prevent it were developed and widely used. However the vaccines became less popular in the 70s and 80s when possibl,e side effects were headlined.
Now some UK studies suggest that one in five adults with a long standing cough have pertussis.
![Dandenong Mayor [left] stands next to aged care resident and aged care staff member](https://agedcareguide-assets.imgix.net/news/articles/wp/belv__2204.jpg?fm=pjpg&w=520&format=auto&q=65)
