The Tasmanian Health Department is contacting parents of newborn babies they believe could have been exposed to whooping cough in three Southern Hospitals.
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The source of the bacterial infection is a healthcare worker who worked at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Hobart Private Hospital and Calvary Lenah Valley Hospital during late December and January while they were unaware they may have been infectious with whooping cough, acting Public Health director Mark Veitch said.
The department has asked the parents of the newborns to attend a specialist clinic for antibiotic treatment as a precaution.
Dr Veitch said the infection risk for each baby was low but could be severe if contracted.
“No cases of whooping cough have yet been reported among these babies, and there is no wider risk to other babies or patients who attended these hospitals,” he said.
“The time from contact with whooping cough to becoming ill is usually seven to 10 days but it could be up to three weeks.
“Whooping cough spreads when an infected person coughs and another person breathes in their germs.
“Vaccination does not prevent all infections, but protects people, particularly young children, from severe illness.”
There has just been the one whooping cough notification in Tasmania this year and there were 29 the year before.
Notifications spiked in 2012, going from 351 notifications in 2011 to 1277 the following year.
The department says that notifications spike in four to five-year cycles.
Tasmania has had the lowest rates of whooping cough notifications over the past three years.
The state government in 2015 introduced free whooping cough vaccinations for all pregnant women in their third trimester to protect newborns from the infection in their first few weeks of life.
A baby cannot be given their first vaccination until they are six weeks old.