Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory disease. It causes severe bouts of coughing, which may be accompanied by vomiting and a whooping sound.

In the past decade, pertussis has made a global resurgence, driving reconsideration of national immunisation schedules and vaccine usage. A workshop held by the Ministry of Health in 2015 discussed New Zealand’s pertussis disease control strategies.

This page provides an overview of pertussis (whooping cough), from what it is and how you catch it, to how you can prevent it through vaccination.

This page provides quick access to IMAC's pertussis (whooping cough) resources, and links to other helpful resource pages.

Pertussis vaccinations are free and so important for hapū mama and young children.

Adacel® is approved for use as a booster vaccine to increases a person’s existing immunity to tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough).

Although maternal pertussis vaccination is recommended, uptake is suboptimal in NewZealand (NZ), despite full funding in general practice and hospitals.

Boostrix is administered as part of the National Immunisation Schedule at 11 years of age. The vaccine is delivered in the school-based vaccination programme to children in Year 7 in most parts of the country. In other areas it is provided in general practice.

A retrospective cohort study of pregnant women who delivered between 2013 and 2018 was undertaken using administrative datasets. Maternity and immunisation data were linked to determine coverage of pertussis and influenza vaccinations in pregnancy.

Though it is believed the switch from whole cell to acellular pertussis vaccine has contributed to the resurgence of pertussis disease, few studies have evaluated vaccine effectiveness (VE) and duration of protection provided by an acellular vaccine schedule including three primary doses but no toddler-age dose.