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Totally don't need this. DS2 came home from daycare today saying whooping cough is there AGAIN!!! It was there 6 months ago. Is it common for it to happen this often? I'm sure I only was exposed once when I worked in child care and I was there for 4 years. Was I just lucky?
I was going to take him to the doctors tomorrow if his cough got any worst but now we are sitting in the waiting room waiting our turn.
We've never had any child with whooping cough and we've been open for 6.5years almost. Don't know how common it's in bigger centres though.
I've heard that a lot of kids are getting whooping cough now because of a combination of adults not getting boosters since childhood, and the new whooping cough vaccination being not very effective so a lot of vaccinated kids still are susceptible. Not sure how true that is but it's in my head as the reason for the upsurge in new cases in children. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can confirm or deny this?
ETA there are outbreaks of whooping cough around the country at the moment, with articles on ABC and various newspapers reflecting this, so it's not just you being unlucky. Here is one example of a media report on the situation http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news...d/2205683.aspx
:
The ACT remains in the grip of a whooping cough epidemic.
Yesterday, Chief Minister and Health Minister Katy Gallagher announced that a whooping cough vaccination program for parents and grandparents of new babies would be extended until December 31 this year.
The highly contagious respiratory illness characterised by a persistent cough can be life-threatening for children under six months.
''I encourage parents of children aged less than 12 months, and grandparents where they are in regular contact with these children, to ensure their immunisation is up to date to protect young infants too young to be immunised themselves,'' Ms Gallagher said.
According to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, there have been 522 pertussis (whooping cough) cases reported in the ACT so far this year.
The number of month-by-month notifications has declined from the recent peak of 205 cases in November 2010 to 83 cases in May 2011. However, reported whooping cough cases are still higher than in previous years. ''A similar increase has been observed nationally, with a 15per cent increase in notification in 2010 compared with 2009,'' Ms Gallagher said.
ACT chief health officer Dr Paul Kelly said that targeted adult vaccinations were part of a cocoon strategy. ''We can't immunise the kids until six months,'' he said.
The exact reason for the increase in whooping cough cases is not known. ''I just think there's more of it around,'' Dr Kelly said.
He suggested that doctors were also getting better at diagnosing cases.
The test for whooping cough has become easier and several alerts have been sent to GPs.
ACT Division of General Practice president Rashmi Sharma welcomed the vaccination extension and said doctors were seeing whooping cough cases every day.
''We do need to keep immunising people who will be in contact with young children,'' she said.
Dr Sharma said whooping cough could be a ''tricky one'' to diagnose. The cough did not develop immediately and adults did not necessarily present with classical symptoms.
The ACT Government launched the adult whooping cough vaccination program in April 2009. Since the program began, the Health Protection Service has distributed 23,717 doses of vaccine at a cost of $630,000.
The Immunise Australia Program says babies should be vaccinated against whooping cough at two, four and six months, with boosters at four years and 15 to 17 years.
I was in the childrens hospital yesterday and they were giving all the staff...volunteer or paid a free pertussis booster to try and create some heard immunity among the adults because adults can be unaware what they have is whopping cough and can pass it on to children.:
He's been swabbed and put on antibiotic (start tomorrow as our local chemist didn't have the one the doctor scripted). I got the booster tonight also.
I just don't know if I should keep him in that centre or try another
There are huge outbreaks of whooping cough at the moment. If it's in your area, it won't matter which childcare centre you go to, the whooping cough is obviously in your area and will be around everywhere. We have had warnings with DS2 to make sure he's up to date with immunisations and that DH and I get boosters because we have a large outbreak in our area and we live in a remote community, so it can be anywhere. If there's an outbreak near you, there really isn't much you can do about it! The childcare centre wouldn't be able to do much either, it's not necessarily their fault, and they are fulfilling their duty of care in telling you whem there is a case of it in the centre. Maybe you could call your local hospy, or the health dept to find out more if ther is an out break of it near you? And what you can do to steer clear of it as best you can.
I'm not having a go at the centre. Honestly I know it's not their fault, it can be brought in to a centre in so many ways. BUT they could wipe noses more often and this morning when I dropped my son off dishes from lunch yesterday were still on the bench. I think in general the centre is going backwards.
I'm angry that I have to deal with this on my own, I'm angry that although my husband can't do anything about it as it's working in Canberra, he's just arrived to a weekend fishing trip and has no responsibility and apart from being cold he won't be woken by one sick child and a baby who needs feeding.
And even if this isn't whooping cough it still sucks.
Sorry for my sookie sookie... It's my first sick child experience on my own.
I had the vaccine last year after my DS was born and they said there is a diff strain of whooping cough out there now so it is becoming more and more prevalent.
You only had to watch 60 minutes a few weeks back to see the devastation it had on families when this kills ;-(
Getting the Point
For those that missed it or are not sure about immunisations then have a look at the video.
All you can do is protect your family to the best of your ability so if you are unsure of this centre then ask questions or def look elsewhere if possible!
Guess I think the only question you could ask the centre is what their policy is on having children who aren't immunised a the centre as I would think that this would increase the likelyhood of things like whooping cough being introduced. Our centre is pretty vigilant over any sort of issues and we've been asked to get our DS cough checked out to make sure it hasn't been whooping cough. I had been fairly sure it wasn't as had been the same type of cough that he'd had several times previously when I had taken him to a doctor but it was nice to think that for the sake of the other children they weren't taking any chances. (Okay I wasn't so pleased to have to pay $65 to the doctor to tell me something I already knew). Other centres I know also do the same thing.
Whooping cough does seem to be pretty prevelant these days and you don't need to be doing to day care to get it. One of the boys in my MGs caught it and his mum is a SAHM. As pps have said while parents and grandparents might be able to get their booster there are dozens of other people little ones come in contact with who haven't.
If your DS has been innoculised if he gets it it will be a milder dose than if he hasn't.
PS wouldn't be happy about dirty dishes being left around in a centre though. To me that makes it sound unclean.
Hope weekend goes okay as it would be tough on your own especially if you have a sick little one. Big hugs