‘I can’t seem to fight this’: readers’ experiences with whooping cough

Five babies in England have died after being diagnosed with whooping cough, health officials said, amid a sharp rise in cases.

So far in 2024, more than 2,700 cases of whooping cough have been reported across England – more than three times as many as all of last year. UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) figures show that 2,793 cases were reported through the end of March, compared to 858 cases for all of 2023.

Dozens of people shared their experiences with the Guardian, with many describing coughing fits that left them feeling as if they could not breathe. Some were prescribed antibiotics to help fight the infection, but many said that when they went to their GP it was too late for a course of medicine to be effective. Others expressed concern about the lack of testing and official diagnoses.

As the number of whooping cough cases increases in adults and children, four people share their experiences with the ‘100 Day Cough’.

‘It’s like drowning in slime’

For Rachi Weerasinghe, 56, who is still coughing two months after falling ill, the feeling of not being able to catch his breath is like “drowning in phlegm”.

His symptoms started in mid-March while he was traveling to London, where he works as a management consultant. “I felt like I was dealing with something nasty,” says Weerasinghe, who lives in Hinchley Wood, Surrey.

A week later, after being “struck by a disease like no other” with hot and cold sweats, dizzying fevers and coughing fits that “could sometimes last 15 minutes,” he made an appointment with the doctor.

“I ended up seeing the GP three times, a different person each time,” he said. “I was prescribed a course of antibiotics but returned a week later for another set of stronger antibiotics. The last person I saw said it might be whooping cough and I was given another round of antibiotics, this time azithromycin.

“I have arthritis and a weakened immune system, so going to the doctor with a respiratory infection is quite routine for me. Normally I am quite healthy and can maintain it through exercise, but I cannot fight this and still have some difficulty speaking.”

‘We are still waiting for the results’

Anna Zueva, 45, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, said she was worried about her children having whooping cough like her. Her son and daughter, 13 and seven, both developed symptoms after she started her own illness on March 10.

Zueva, who works as a senior lecturer in management at the University of Huddersfield and has asthma, said she saw a nurse at her local practice who told her her illness was “probably viral” and that medication would be “of no use”. Over the next two weeks her symptoms worsened and she went to her GP, who said there was a risk of whooping cough and prescribed her antibiotics.

On the same day, her children developed a mild fever that quickly resolved, followed by a worsening cough. While the family was traveling to visit elderly relatives in Northern Ireland on March 28, Zueva began to “freak out” that the children might be contagious.

The night before they were due to leave, she called 111 and was given a telephone appointment with her GP at 8am the next day. “They agreed to prescribe antibiotics to my children over the phone,” she said. “However, obtaining these from pharmacists has been a challenge as most were out of stock due to supply issues.

“We were able to get them for my son at the third pharmacy we visited. For my daughter, who needed a special dose because of her age and weight, we stopped at six or seven. We ended up getting them from a pharmacy (after we arrived) in Northern Ireland.”

The same day, she received a call from a government health agency, saying test kits would be sent to the children to check for whooping cough.

“(The kits) only arrived in mid-April and even though we returned them immediately, we are still waiting for the results. The preventive measures against something as terrible as whooping cough seem non-existent, and there seems to be no possibility for timely testing,” Zueva said.

“My children only developed a moderate cough. I think it helped that they were vaccinated and I think it’s extremely important that people are too. However, I would like to see boosters become available to everyone.”

‘I collapsed and had a black eye for two weeks’

Like Zueva, Michael Angove was told he would get a whooping cough test, but “it didn’t show up.” His symptoms had started in early March when he developed a “stingly cough” and his chest “felt raw.”

During the third week, the cough started waking him up in the middle of the night. “On one occasion I woke up and tried to get up as I struggled to breathe,” said the 51-year-old, who lives in Devizes, Wiltshire.

“The next minute I was walking around on the floor with blood on my head and on the carpet. I didn’t know if I was in a dream, but later I realized that I had fallen on the bed and hit my forehead. The damage was superficial, but I had a serious black eye for two weeks. It was terrifying.”

The same day, Angove called his doctor and said his neighbor had similar symptoms. He was referred to a local walk-in center later that day and said the doctor “knew exactly” what he was describing and prescribed antibiotics. “He said it was whooping cough and that the government would send me a test kit so I could provide a sample to get a formal diagnosis.”

Two weeks later, after the test had not arrived, he followed up with his GP, ‘who could not explain’ what had happened to the test. He was given a number to call, but “all (my) calls went unanswered – they just kept calling and calling.”

“My care has been very good, but I don’t think the official figures for this year will be accurate because I haven’t had a test,” Angove said. “I know so many people here who have had whooping cough symptoms for 60 to 90 days and may not have been tested. I’m still waiting, almost two months later.

‘I told the consultant that I thought I had whooping cough and that he didn’t seem to take me seriously’

For some readers, the concern was whether they have whooping cough or not.

On February 20, after coming into contact with a client who was coughing, Joanne Noton, 43, a personal trainer from north-east Lincolnshire, developed a “chest cough with phlegm”. A week later the cough became “uncontrollable” and she went to a GP who prescribed amoxicillin for a suspected respiratory infection.

During this time she developed the ‘signature whoop’ and had to cancel her classes. In the evening she started vomiting because of the ‘hardness’ of the cough, and in week four she went to the doctor with severe abdominal pain.

“He sent me to the emergency room and (I waited) for three hours,” she said. “There were other people coughing violently and holding sick bowls. They thought I had an intestinal blockage, but a scan showed that I had a rib cartilage fracture due to excessive coughing.

“I told the consultant I thought I had whooping cough and he didn’t seem to take me seriously. It was almost as if what I said wasn’t valid.”

In April, after two months of coughing and a chest X-ray that showed no signs of infection, Noton noticed she was getting out of breath “very quickly” after a burst of activity. “I went to a nurse and she thinks I have asthma due to whooping cough, even though my original diagnosis was bronchitis,” she said.

“I’m a very fit person, as it’s part of my job, so this all came as a shock. I feel better now and have returned to work and exercise, but I am still coughing. I feel like I wasn’t listened to and I wish I had pushed more to get tested.”