Return of masks and three-week isolation for infected schoolkids as whooping cough outbreak sweeps UK

GP SURGERIES are asking patients to wear masks while infected schoolkids will need to isolate for three weeks, as the UK faces its worst whooping cough outbreak in 40 years.

Cases of the super-infectious ‘100-day cough’ surged in the first three months of this year, reaching 2,793 confirmed infections.

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This is way above the total of 853 reported throughout 2023.

The outbreak – which has tragically resulted in the deaths of at least five babies – has prompted a return of Covid-style measures, with some GPs bringing back mask-wearing in their surgeries.

Parkside Family Practice in Reading, Berkshire, is one of the surgeries asking patients to don face masks, writing on its website: “For infection control purposes, please do wear a face mask when coming to our surgery.”

The Parkview Surgery in Uxbridge, Middlesex, also told patients: “If you have a face to face appointment, the doctors ask that you wear a face mask to your appointment.”

Meanwhile, the West Hampstead Medical Centre in London emailed patients to warn them of  “a local upsurge in measles and whooping cough”, as per The Telegraph.

Aside from asking patients to wear a mask to the practice if they have a cough, it asked anyone with symptoms to book a phone call appointment but to be “available to attend in person within 30 minutes”.

The surgery even asked patients to wait outside for their appointments, asking them to “notify the reception you have arrived but wait outside to be called in when your appointment starts”.

These added health precautions follow updates to NHS England’s infection control guidance made earlier this year, in response to a measles outbreak and rising whooping cough case numbers.

It advised reinstating mask-wearing measures where appropriate.

“If the patient has an infectious agent transmitted by the airborne or droplet route, then if possible or tolerated the patient should wear a surgical face mask in communal areas” to avoid spreading the highly contagious diseases to others, the guidance stated.

GUIDANCE FOR SCHOOLKIDS

Rates of whooping cough – also referred to as pertussis – were highest in babies under three months, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

But half of cases were in people aged 15 or older, who usually only get a mild illness, and another 28 per cent were in children aged between 10 and 14 years of age.

Current UKHSA pertussis guidance recommends children and teachers suspected of having whooping cough should be “excluded from nursery or school” for 21 days after their symptoms first start.

But this is only the case if they haven’t been treated with antibiotics.

If whooping cough is caught and diagnosed within three weeks of someone being infected, then they can be given antibiotics to stop the illness spreading to others.

In these cases, children and teachers who are given antibiotics only need isolate for 48 hours after starting treatment before they’re able to return to classes.

Tory MP David Davis criticised the advice as overly-cautious, telling MailOnline it was “vitally important to maintain the continuity of education”.

“The obvious response would be to put them on antibiotics and return them to school as quickly as possible,” he claimed.

“Being away from school for weeks on end can put children behind in critical areas of their study, and they may not recover. 

“Plainly, the right approach is to is to use medical procedures to accelerate their return, not to take an overcautious delay which could do real damage to their education.”

A spokesman for the UKHSA said the whooping cough school guidance help “prevent the spread of infection, especially to vulnerable groups”.

“However, vaccination remains the best protection for babies and children,” they noted.

This year’s rise in whooping cough cases has been blamed on lower uptake in jabs that provide protection from the illness, as well as waning immunity following Covid-19 lockdowns.

Pregnant women are offered a free NHS whooping cough vaccine between 16 and 32 weeks, while babies are given three doses of the 6-in-1 jab at eight, 12 and 16 weeks of age to protect against whooping cough and other serious diseases such as diphtheria and polio.

A pre-school booster is also offered at three years and four months.

Just 61 per cent of pregnant women in England were vaccinated in 2023, down from 71 per cent in 2020.

Meanwhile, the number of two-year-olds who completed their six-in-one vaccinations as of September 2023 was 92.9 per cent, compared with 96.3 per cent in March 2014.

‘I THOUGHT I WAS WATCHING MY DAUGHTER DIE’

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Whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes that can be especially dangerous to young babies.

Starting off with cold like symptoms and progressing into nasty coughing bouts, the illness gets its name from the distinctive whoop sound some people make when they gasp for breath between coughs.

A mum revealed that she was left fearing for her teenage daughter’s life, as she was wracked by coughing that left her breathless after contracting the infection.

Alana Yeates, from Peterlee, County Durham, said Ellie, 14, first got a sore throat in April, which later turned into a cough that wouldn’t budge.

“Around 4am, I woke to find Ellie gasping for breath, her lips were going blue and I thought she was going to die,” Alana told What’sTheJam.

“The wheezing noise she was making was horrific, she couldn’t breathe.

“It was the most terrifying thing we have ever been through.

“I felt absolutely helpless, I didn’t know what to do.

“She could not catch her breath and I could see she was petrified.”

Alana described this as “the longest and scariest three minutes of my life” and was moments away from calling an ambulance when Ellie finally calmed down.

But the 14-year-old was too scared to fall back asleep and confided in her mum that “she thought she was going to die”.

Ellie had allegedly been told her cough was due to a viral infection and should be treated with fluids.

But Alana felt something much worse was going on and recorded her daughter’s coughs and played this for the doctors to listen to – they diagnosed Ellie with whooping cough straight away.

She was given an inhaler and antibiotics; but weeks later, the teen is still battling.

Alana added: “She’s been unable to take part in PE at school and is missing her horse riding sessions.

“Ellie is usually a fit and healthy teenager, but she’s too lethargic to do anything physical.

“Before this, I knew nothing at all about whooping cough –  I honestly thought it was an illness from the past.

“I was told teenagers don’t really get whooping cough, but they do.

“My children were vaccinated but it’s highly contagious and it’s the scariest thing I have ever seen my daughter go through.”