An NHS doctor has issued a warning if your cough lasts two to three weeks. At this point, it could be a "nasty illness" known as whooping cough.

Also referred to as pertussis or the 100-day cough, whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the lungs and airways. If left untreated, it can require hospital treatment, and in children and babies, it can cause serious breathing issues as well as pneumonia and seizures.

In a video uploaded to social media platform TikTok, medical expert Doctor Suraj Kukadia shared more about the illness. Responding to another content creator's post about her ongoing cough, he said: "That does not sound like a fun cough.

"It's probably whooping cough or pertussis or the hundred-day cough, whatever you want to call it." Dr Kukadia, who is best known as Dr Sooj online, explained that the symptoms typically come on in three "distinct" phases.

"The first is where it feels like a cold or flu," he said. "You might be a bit unwell with it.

"You usually have cough, cold, runny nose, fevers, sweats, muscle aches, things like that. This stage can last for two to three weeks."

It is during this time that you are contagious. He continued: "And if it's caused by pertussis, it's a bacterial infection, but it presents like any viral illness in its first few weeks.

"It's during this stage that people are contagious." In the second stage, the symptoms can become more severe.

He said: "But once they enter the second stage, which is where they have these really, really severe coughing fits where they can struggle to breathe, they can vomit afterwards.

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"They can feel awful while the fit is happening, but as soon as the coughing fit finishes, then they're back to their baseline. In this stage, they shouldn't be contagious.

"But this stage can last for up to three or four months." In the third stage, the symptoms start to get milder.

He said: "And then they enter stage three, which is very similar to stage two. It's just that these coughing fits become less intense and less severe, and that can last for up to a month."

He added: "If you're diagnosed with whooping cough in stage one of this illness, there are some antibiotics that might make stages two and three much shorter and much more tolerable.

"But if you're in stage two already, antibiotics are probably not going to make any difference. This is not specific medical advice, but please go and see a doctor if you've got any concerns."

Symptoms

In a blog post, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), branded whooping cough as a potentially "nasty illness." According to the UKHSA, the first symptoms of whooping cough are similar to a common cold, with a runny nose and a mild fever.

It said: "After about a week or two, the classic cough develops with uncontrolled fits of severe coughing that can last for several minutes, sometimes causing vomiting. Coughing is often worse at night. Coughing fits can cause some people to make a typical 'whooping' sound as they gasp for breath between coughs."

Who is most at risk?

The UKHSA said: "Young babies who are not yet old enough to have had their first three doses of infant vaccines are at the highest risk of developing severe whooping cough including pauses in breathing (apnoea), dehydration, pneumonia, or seizures. Rarely, babies with whooping cough can sadly die."

Vaccines

The whooping cough vaccine is given as part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule in the UK. Babies are given three doses at the ages of eight, 12 and 16 weeks old (the six-in-one vaccine), followed by a booster at three years four months.

The UKHSA said: "Children born from July 2024 onwards will have a fourth dose of the whooping cough vaccine at 18 months of age that will help boost their protection until they get their next dose at three years four months of age. The vaccine course helps provide high levels of protection against severe disease.

"It's also important for pregnant women to get vaccinated against whooping cough to help protect their baby in their first weeks of life before they can be given their own first vaccine dose. Vaccinating pregnant women boosts their protection which will be shared with their unborn baby in the womb so that babies are protected from birth."

Vaccinating pregnant women is known to be 90 per cent effective in preventing whooping cough deaths in young babies.

Prevelance

The UKHSA added: "In the years since monitoring began, we have seen a huge fall in whooping cough cases from peak years exceeding 100,000 cases in the 1950s, before the first whooping cough vaccine was introduced, to a peak year of around 6,000 cases in 2016 by which time many new ways of confirming whooping cough had also been introduced.

"Whooping cough is a disease that regularly peaks every three to five years. We saw very high rates of whooping cough in 2024, following a long period of very low case numbers due to controls, and reduced social mixing patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic."

When to seek help

The NHS says you should ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 if:

• Your baby is under six months old and has symptoms of whooping cough


• You or your child have a very bad cough that is getting worse


• You've been in contact with someone with whooping cough and you're pregnant