With whooping cough cases having witnessed a dramatic rise this year, leading to the worst outbreak of the disease in nearly twenty years, doctors are considering the option of vaccinating newborn babies against the disease.

Going by the thus-far-this-year figures linked to whooping cough, which can prove to be a fatal illness, over 3,500 cases have been reported in England and Wales; thereby underscoring a figure which is three-fold higher than the total number of cases ion 2011, when the current outbreak started.

Since the whooping cough cases reported this year included as many as six deaths, all of them of babies below the age of three months, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has recently expressed concerns about the rise in whooping cough cases and advised parents to be on the look-out for symptoms of the disease as well as make sure that their children get timely vaccinations.

With whooping cough vaccine currently being offered to babies at two, three and four months of age; vaccinating newborn babies against the disease is an option under consideration by the members of joint committee on vaccination and immunisation at the Department of Health.

Noting that the Department there had been a “high uptake of vaccination” against the disease, a spokesman for the Department said that the joint committee “is looking at whether more people need to be vaccinated;” and added: “Careful consideration is always needed around expanding any programme.”