hi quick question. one of my work colleagues has been diagnosed with whopping cough today. should i be worried. i carnt remember if i had it as a child.cannot ask my mother as she passed over . kim
You could ask at your GP surgery about whether or not you had the inoculation when you were a child - it should be in your records?
Tbh, I would imagine it’s a bit late to do anything but hope if you’ve been sharing an office with the person who’s got it. What will be will be 
Karen x
Even if you had the whooping cough vaccination as a child it only lasts for 10 years. The current advice is for everybody to have a booster as an adult and then every 10 years after that. It is called Boostrix and should be available from your GP. Whooping cough is reaching epidemic levels again in many areas so given we already deal with enough problems and that whooping cough is a VERY srious illness do please get the booster EVERYONE. Don’t rely on your childhood vaccine…
B
I didn’t know that Belinda - very helpful info.
I had whooping cough as a child - I wonder if it’s something that you can only have once? Off for a google!..
Kx
Karen, you can get whooping cough more than once but the second time tends to be less severe. You can also get it when vaccinated. The vaccination is about 85% effective but it does reduce the severity of it if you do get it when vaccinated.
I got it 3 winters ago and I was up to date with my boosters. Horrible bloody thing even though I had it mildly. But a friend of mine ended up in HDU with it. There was a bad epidemic of it here. Lots and lots of people came down with is and it took the unvaccinated ones months to shake it off whereas I got over it in a week or so.
B
Do you think they’d give the vaccine at the same time as having the flu jab? It would kill two birds with one stone! Teresa xx
Don’t see why not… you can but ask Teresa
B xx