Pertussis Health Alert

Pertussis outbreak in Queensland continues

The following information has been provided for dissemination to general practices from Dr Christine Selvey, Senior Director, Communicable Diseases Branch, Queensland Health.

Public Health Alert

Queensland Health is alerting general practitioners that the pertussis outbreak that commenced in 2008 has not yet waned and there continues to be a high number of notified cases in Queensland.

Please click here for the IMPORTANT Public Health Alert (13 November 2009).

In Queensland:
  • there were over 4700 notifications from January 2009 to October 2009 - more than 3 times the number of notifications usually expected during this period
  • the number of cases notified in children less than 6 months of age in the same period is about 5 times as many as the average for 2004 to 2005
  • the number of notified cases in people of child-bearing age has more than doubled

The pertussis vaccine is currently available free of charge to new parents.

Queensland Health is asking GPs to actively promote (and provide) this vaccine to eligible parents (parents of children born after 1 May 2009).