Private whooping cough clinic in London, same-day respiratory.

How it progresses

• It begins like an ordinary cold — runny nose, mild cough, sometimes a slight fever. This is when it spreads most, and before anyone suspects it.
• Then come bouts of intense coughing, often in runs of ten or more, frequently worse at night, leaving the person exhausted and red or blue in the face.
• The whoop is the sharp intake of breath at the end of a bout. Many adults and older children never whoop — its absence does not exclude the diagnosis.
• Vomiting after coughing is very characteristic and worth mentioning to us.
• Between bouts, people often appear completely well, which is why it is so often dismissed.

Diagnosis and antibiotics

• Diagnosed with a swab early in the illness, or a blood or saliva test later on.
• Antibiotics only help if started within about three weeks of the cough beginning. Given early they shorten the illness; given later they do nothing for symptoms.
• Even late, antibiotics are prescribed to stop you passing it on, particularly to babies and pregnant women.
• Household contacts, especially those around babies or in late pregnancy, may be offered preventive antibiotics.
• Cough medicines do not work for whooping cough. Nothing much shortens the cough once established — time is the treatment.

Managing at home

Staying away from others

Stay off school, nursery or work until 48 hours after starting antibiotics, or for 21 days from the start of the cough if you are not taking them. Whooping cough is a notifiable disease and we are required to inform public health, who will trace and protect close contacts.