Parents put on cough alert

Boyne Island mother Samantha Richards and her son Seth, 16 months, contracted the highly contagious whooping cough last year.

Christopher Chan

THERE are growing calls for parents to ensure their children are fully immunised as the region faces the possibility of another bad year of whooping cough (pertussis) incidences.

More than 257 notifications of pertussis in Queensland have been received this year, 22 of these coming from the Central Queensland Public Health Unit area.

It's not the start health officials were looking for as the state, including the Gladstone region, faces yet another year under threat of contracting the highly contagious respiratory disease.

Central Queensland Public Health Unit public health physician Dr James Smith said incidences of whooping cough had plateaued at quite a high level.

He said during the past three years there had been a significant rise in cases reported.

"At the moment it seems to be sustained," Dr Smith said.

Dr Smith said vaccination was effective and was still the most important way to reduce the burden on the community.

He said it was about 80-85% effective, with the vast majority of people having protection.

"Those (immunised) who end up getting it tend to have less severe symptoms," Dr Smith said.

Dr Smith said the most important message for anyone with a troublesome cough was to stay away from school, work and the public and seek a diagnosis from their GP immediately.

Boyne Island mother Samantha Richards and her son Seth, 16 months, know too well the terrible effects of whooping cough after they both contracted it in August last year.

Both are fully immunised and Ms Richards said she was fortunate in the fact that it may have eased the symptoms and duration of the cough for them.

"We both started with flu-like symptoms and ended up with a bad cough," Ms Richards said.

"I wasn't so bad, I had coughing bouts where you couldn't stop but Seth would cough so much until he vomited."