{"id":37481,"date":"2024-09-13T08:36:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T22:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/?p=37481"},"modified":"2024-09-13T13:42:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T03:42:49","slug":"37481","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/?p=37481","title":{"rendered":"Increase in pertussis (whooping cough)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Whooping Cough (Pertussis)<\/p>\n
The Ovens Murray Public Health Unit (OMPHU) is monitoring a significant increase in pertussis (whooping cough) cases in our region this year, particularly among school-aged children. <\/p>\n
Who is at risk?<\/p>\n
In Victoria and NSW, there have been over 10 times the number of pertussis cases in 2024 than for the whole of 2023. Children aged 9-12 years account for nearly 40% of all notified cases. Anyone can get pertussis. Infants less than 6 months of age are at greatest risk of severe disease, hospitalisation, and death. These infants are too young to be fully immunised. Many infants who get pertussis catch it from older children and adults who might not even know they are infected. <\/p>\n
What is pertussis (whooping cough)?<\/p>\n
Pertussis is a contagious respiratory infection that can cause very serious illness. The disease begins like a cold and then the characteristic cough (\u2018whooping\u2019 sound) develops. This cough may last up to 3 months, even after antibiotic treatment is completed and the person is no longer infectious. Symptoms may be indistinguishable from other respiratory infections, especially in its early stages. Testing to confirm a pertussis infection can be conducted by a GP.<\/p>\n
What should families do?<\/p>\n
Whooping Cough (Pertussis) The Ovens Murray Public Health Unit (OMPHU) is monitoring a significant increase in pertussis (whooping cough) cases in our region this year,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parent-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37481"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37488,"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37481\/revisions\/37488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wssc.vic.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}