Parents in the Lakes and Bay of Plenty health board districts are urged to ensure their babies receive their first immunisations on time at six weeks to protect them from whooping cough.
An outbreak of whooping cough (pertussis) started in the South Island last year and has spread across New
Zealand during 2012. Toi Te Ora _ Public Health Service has been notified of 243 people with whooping cough in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes districts since the start of this year, with 14 people requiring hospitalisation.
Whooping cough is highly infectious and is caused by bacteria that are spread through the community by coughing and sneezing in the same way as colds and influenza. Symptoms start with a runny nose and dry cough.
Coughing gets worse over the next few weeks developing into attacks of coughing which some times end in vomiting or with breathlessness. The 'whoop' sound sometimes occurs especially as a baby draws a breath after a long coughing attack.
Babies under 1 are most at risk of serious complications from the illness.