News & Current Events
Infant Death Highlights Severity Of Queensland’s Worst Whooping Cough Epidemic On Record
Following hundreds of cases in the first few months of 2025, Queensland is experiencing a worrying increase in whooping cough cases.
According to Queensland Health data, there have already been 2,384 whooping cough cases, which is almost three-and-a-half times the average for 2020–24.
In Queensland, there were 15,012 cases of whooping cough in 2024—more than there had been in the preceding 11 years put together.
Physicians attribute the alarming numbers to inadequate personal cleanliness and a lack of vaccinations since the Covid-19 pandemic.
One kid died from the virus last year, highlighting how serious the sickness is for young children.
According to Professor Paul Griffin, director of infectious diseases at Mater Hospital Brisbane, infection rates over the last 12 months are quite concerning.
“It is important people appreciate that the numbers are very high and higher than we’d normally see,” he said.
“Then if we add to that, a reduction in vaccination rates, that’s certainly going to be a factor, and going to be contributing to the significance of those cases as well.”
“We know it’s far worse in people who aren’t vaccinated.”
According to Queensland Health, the percentage of one-year-olds who received the illness vaccination decreased from 94.4% at the end of 2018 to 90.8% in 2024.
Pregnant women’s vaccination rates have similarly decreased, falling from about 77% in 2020 to roughly 70% in 2023.
Complications from whooping cough include pneumonia, brain damage, and even death.
According to Adrian Esterman, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of South Australia, whooping cough outbreaks typically happen in Australia every three to five years.
He claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic had caused a delay in the epidemic, which was first anticipated to occur in 2020–2022.
While interim chief health officer Catherine McDougall stated that immunisation against the infectious respiratory infection was crucial for infants and young children, Professor Esterman urged authorities to encourage vaccination.
“Vaccines save lives and we know that vaccinating pregnant women against whooping cough reduces the risk of their babies contracting the infection by 75 per cent,” she said.
“That’s why it’s especially crucial for pregnant women to be vaccinated to protect themselves and their unborn babies.”
“While the number of cases per week has declined since then to between 50-80 cases per week over the last four weeks, it’s clear that whooping cough is continuing to circulate in the Queensland community, which is why it’s critical that people get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
Under the National Immunisation Program, the whooping cough vaccination is free for pregnant women, children ages two, four, six, and eighteen months, and adolescents ages twelve to nineteen.
Ten years following vaccines, booster shots are advised.
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