Low vaccination and immunity rates mean NZ faces a harsh whooping cough winter – what needs to happen
- Written by: Helen Petousis-Harris, Associate Professor Primary Health, University of Auckland
Bastiaan Beentjes/Getty ImagesFollowing the deaths of two infants, doctors and scientists worry New Zealand’s whooping cough epidemic could be the worst in years.
Known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, whooping cough is a bacterial respiratory infection caused by Bordetella pertussis. It is extremely infectious and endemic in New Zealand.
Us...