Whooping Cough

Lord Allan of Hallam Excerpts

Thursday 16th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

The noble Lord, as always, makes a very powerful point and he is exactly right. Whooping cough is cyclical. The last time this country experienced an outbreak was 2016 and we were due to have another outbreak in 2021. As noble Lords will know, we suffered from Covid lockdown and because of the isolation, it went down. So we were due one in 2020-21, and the reason that this outbreak is more powerful is because of social distancing during Covid—and the outbreak is the most severe, as the noble Baroness said, in a long time. That is the explanation—it is cyclical, we had lockdown and we are now in the middle of the severe outbreak.

As for the noble Lord comparing our health service to others throughout Europe, he is exactly right. The UK has the most extensive immunisation programme in the world but, as he rightly points out, we have to communicate that to all the population. NHS England works with UKHSA and the regions to continuously review opportunities to improve uptake and coverage of all NHS routine immunisation programmes, sharing and spreading best practice in what has worked. But we can always learn from other countries to make the NHS even better.

[Lord Allan of Hallam (LD)]

My Lords, Education Ministers have been very active recently telling parents to send their children to school with coughs and colds, yet the NHS tells us that the early signs of whooping cough are very similar to those of a cold, and we advise people with this condition to stay home and isolate. Does the Minister recognise the risk of confusion for parents in this messaging? Will he talk to his colleagues at the Department for Education, for example, to tweak that messaging, so it is different where children are unvaccinated or where there are local outbreaks?

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

The noble Lord is exactly right: communication is critical and, as he well knows, if the message is confusing, it is very unhelpful. But the message is clear that parents and carers have an obligation to immunise their children, not just for whooping cough but for other childhood diseases. Particularly for pregnant mothers, the message is clear: get immunised.