Whooping Cough

Vaccination against whooping cough (pertussis) is given as a part of the national immunization programme at the age of 3, 5 and 12 months (DTaP vaccine). See Vaccinations .Whooping cough occurs particularly in unvaccinated infants less than 3 months of age and in school-age children because the protection provided by the vaccine is of short duration.After confirmation of the diagnosis, antimicrobial treatment using a macrolide is given to infants and to those children and adults in whom the symptoms have lasted less than 4 weeks.