Whooping cough Qld outbreak an unprecedented explosion

Queensland is grappling with an unprecedented outbreak of a deadly disease, with more cases in 2024 than the past decade.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Heidi Carroll

Queensland is grappling with a never-before-seen explosion of deadly whooping cough, with the state recording more cases in 2024 than throughout the last decade.

And experts believe it’s a perfect storm after Covid-19 restrictions and falling vaccination rates.

There were 14,783 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, in Queensland in 2024 according to Queensland Health — 16 times the 928 infections of 2023.

The 2024 total was also higher than the 11,868 cases recorded in the decade from 2014 to 2023.

The killer disease hit infants and young children the hardest, leaving them fighting for breath and cause coughs hard enough to cause vomiting and fractured ribs.

The staggering whooping cough increase in Queensland is reflected nationally, with infectious disease experts pointing to falling vaccination rates and a wave of disease brought on by the end of Covid-19 restrictions like hand hygiene, mask wearing and social distancing.

Mater Health infectious disease director Professor Paul Griffin said while whooping cough outbreaks happened every three to five years, the latest increase was out of the norm.

“There’s additional factors. Part of it is declining vaccination rates, even a small percentage decline results in a significant increase in vulnerability and we’ve seen both the childhood and maternal vaccination rates drop off in recent times,” he said.

“I think the other factor is that for a few years at least we did all the right things and some additional things to mitigate the risk of infectious disease … and that probably reduced those numbers for a little while.”

The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, in its latest annual report, found vaccine coverage rates among children had fallen for the third year in a row as of 2023.

This came after eight years of generally increasing coverage with NCIRS flagging the drop as modest but concerning.

In Queensland, 90.8 per cent of one year olds were vaccinated against whooping cough as of September 2024 — down from 94.4 per cent at the end of 2018 according to Queensland Health.

The portion of pregnant women vaccinated against pertussis have also fallen, from 77.2 per cent in 2020 to 70.7 per cent in 2023.

Chief health officer Dr Heidi Carroll has repeatedly called for Queenslanders to get vaccinated against pertussis, describing it as the most effective way to control the disease.

“(Vaccination) is an important step towards reducing the risk associated with whooping cough infection and keeping more people safe from the disease,” she said.

University of South Australia biostatistics and epidemiology Professor Adrian Esterman said more susceptible groups, including children and older people would not have been exposed to whooping cough in the community for years amid Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.

“Now it’s hitting them for the first time. It’s not really surprising that we’re seeing way more kids infected,” he said.

When a pregnant woman is vaccinated, she protects the baby from whooping cough while in the womb and as a newborn.

The pertussis, or whooping cough vaccine, is available for free under the National Immunisation Program during pregnancy, for children aged 2, 4, 6, and 18 months – and for adolescents aged 12-19 (inclusive). Boosters are recommended 10 years after vaccinations.

Originally published as Whooping cough Qld outbreak an unprecedented explosion