People are today being warned of the importance of having vaccinations for childhood illnesses with rates falling as cases of whooping cough have risen dramatically
Whooping cough cases are rising, and doctors are bracing for yet another tough year as vaccination rates have fallen.
New data from the United States has mirrored the situation in the UK where cases of whooping cough have gone through the roof. There have been 8,485 cases reported in 2025, according to preliminary data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s twice as many cases as this time last year, based on the CDC’s final tally.
And in the UK cases rose from in the hundreds in 2023 to more than 14,000 last year. Soaring rates of whooping cough, or pertussis, soared last year, isn’t unexpected according to experts, with the number of cases falling during Covid-19 pandemic because of masking and social distancing. Plus, experts said, the illness peaks every two to five years.
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But it is also believed that outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses, like measles and whooping cough, could be indicative of changing attitudes toward vaccines. In the US nursery vaccination rates fell last year, and the number of children with vaccine exemptions hit an all-time high.
“There’s unfortunately been increasing anti-vaccine sentiment in the United States,” said Dr Ericka Hayes at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Our recovery is not nearly as quick as we expected it to be and we needed it to be. And again, when you fall below 95% for vaccinations, you lose that herd immunity protection.”
Whooping cough tends to peak around this time of year and in the autumn. It’s usually spread through respiratory droplets in the air, when people with pertussis cough, sneeze or breathe close to others. The symptoms are similar to a cold but the cough becomes increasingly severe with a distinctive sound – a “whoop” as the person tries to take in air. It is treated with antibiotics.
Officials have raised concerns over declining vaccine uptake in the UK, particularly for childhood illnesses like measles and whooping cough.
Last September, it emerged that childhood vaccination coverage fell in 2023/24, with no vaccines meeting the 95% target. The uptake of some doses of the jab for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) fell to levels not seen since 2009/2010.
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The MMR was introduced in 1988 and prior to this notifications for measles cases were between 160,000 to 800,000 each year, according to Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of UKHSA.
“Following the introduction of MMR we saw very few cases in the UK and in 2017 the World Health Organisation declared the UK to have eliminated measles,” she said. “Sadly, as our report shows, we are in a different place now. In 2023 there were 362 confirmed measles cases. In 2024, 2,836.
“Those numbers sit alongside other data for childhood vaccine preventable illness. We saw pertussis – whooping cough – cases rise from the hundreds in 2023 to over 14,000 in 2024, tragically resulting in a small number of deaths in babies.”
Dame Jenny also warned many other diseases are “out of step from the pandemic or moving in the wrong direction”, including sexually transmitted infections. Analysis by UKHSA found infectious diseases were the reason for more than 20% of NHS hospital bed usage in 2023/2024, costing almost £6 billion.
Richard Pebody, director of epidemic and emerging infections at UKHSA, said: “This winter has demonstrated that rises in rates of infectious diseases can cause significant strain, not only on the individuals directly affected, but also on the NHS. It is vital that we are not complacent about infections where we can reduce the burden of disease via interventions such as our world-class vaccination programmes.”
