Guidance

Information for individuals who have whooping cough

Updated 14 June 2024

Whooping cough

Whooping cough is caused by the ‘pertussis’ bacteria (bug) and is spread by coughing and sneezing. The symptoms often start like a cold, progressing to outbursts of coughing which can sometimes cause vomiting or choking. The cough sometimes has a characteristic ‘whoop’ sound. The most effective way to prevent whooping cough is to be fully vaccinated.

Treatment and vaccination

Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to treat whooping cough if the illness started recently.  Antibiotics are only likely to help your symptoms if taken within 2 weeks from the day your cough started.

If you have been given antibiotics to treat whooping cough, please remember to stay off nursery, school or work, and avoid contact with any young babies or pregnant women until 48 hours after starting antibiotics.

If you are not receiving antibiotics to treat your illness, then you’ll need to stay off nursery, school or work and avoid contact with any young babies or pregnant women for 2 weeks from the start of the cough. If it is more than 2 weeks since the start of your illness, starting antibiotics at this time is unlikely to help. If you are well enough, you can go to school or work as normal.

However, if you are:

• a nursery worker providing close personal care to babies (for example, working in a baby room in a nursery)

or:

• a healthcare worker providing close personal care to pregnant women or babies

and you are not receiving antibiotics to treat your illness, then you will need to stay off work for 3 weeks from the start of the cough. This will help reduce the chance of passing on the infection to babies who are most at risk of becoming seriously unwell.

The cough can last for up to 3 months or more in some people. If you become concerned, please discuss your symptoms with your doctor.

Whooping cough can be a very serious illness in young babies who are not fully vaccinated against it (who have not received 3 doses of the ‘pertussis-containing vaccine’ offered at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age). Therefore, if there are pregnant women or young babies in your household, they may be offered antibiotics and vaccination to help protect them.

We also recommend the following:

• if there is a baby under one year who is not fully vaccinated in your household, and you are concerned they may have symptoms of whooping cough, seek prompt advice from the baby’s GP
• if anyone in your household is unwell with similar symptoms and is a healthcare worker who provides close personal care to babies or pregnant women, ask them to inform their occupational health department promptly – the occupational health department can seek further advice from the local health protection team within the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) as required
• anyone in your household who is pregnant should be vaccinated with a pertussis-containing vaccine. Pregnant women are offered their whooping cough vaccine between weeks 20 and 32 of their pregnancy, normally at the time of their mid-pregnancy scan (around 20 weeks), but can have it as early as 16 weeks. You need to have the vaccine in every pregnancy
• ensure all babies and children under 10 years in your household are fully up to date with their vaccines – you can check this with your GP surgery if you are not sure
• if the individual diagnosed with whooping cough works at or attends a nursery or other childcare setting providing care to young babies, contact the health protection team – you can find your local team by entering your postcode to provide the name of the school – this helps us to identify outbreaks
• if the individual diagnosed with whooping cough is a healthcare worker, they should inform their occupational health department and infection prevention control team as soon as possible

Vaccine uptake levels in pregnant women, babies and young children have fallen in recent years across England. Vaccination in pregnancy is key to passively protecting babies before they can be directly protected by the infant vaccine programme.

It is important that babies are vaccinated when they become eligible for infant doses and that those who miss vaccination are caught up at the earliest opportunity.

Further information

More information is available at:

Whooping cough (NHS.UK)

Vaccinations and when to have them (NHS.UK)

Information leaflet on whooping cough vaccination in pregnancy (GOV.UK)