00:00It's a really interesting thing that we see, and we've seen in the last couple of weeks.
00:06And probably more importantly, we're predicting that it will be continuing on for the next
00:10few weeks.
00:11And that's this spike in a number of respiratory viruses, like you say, absolutely whooping
00:17cough, but also influenza, COVID, and a few others like mycoplasma and pneumonia.
00:23There's a few reasons for it.
00:24Some of them are cyclical, and we expect to see these increases every few years.
00:30But this year, we've definitely seen quite a large number of range of viruses all hit
00:36at the same time.
00:38Who does it affect particularly badly?
00:42So for whooping cough, we're really looking at our newborns, our young bubs.
00:46So those that are under six months of age that haven't been able to be fully vaccinated
00:50yet.
00:51Okay.
00:52And what are the symptoms?
00:53What symptoms can children get?
00:55Great question.
00:56So they can get really, really quite unwell.
00:58So the main stay of whooping cough is that barking who, who, who noise that they get
01:04when they get this cough.
01:06But with the cough, more importantly, is the respiratory distress, so an inability to breathe.
01:12And that's what then makes them needing hospitalization stays, needing ICU and support breathing,
01:18and sometimes, unfortunately, needing more support or passing away.
01:22Yeah, must be quite frightening for them.
01:25What are the treatments?
01:28Great question.
01:29So if we catch it early enough, we can treat it with antibiotics.
01:33And more importantly, if we catch it early enough, we can treat those that are contacts
01:37so they can stop it from spreading on to other people.
01:40But before that, it's vaccination, vaccination, vaccination.
01:44We want everyone to make sure they're up to date with vaccination.
01:47Has vaccination rates gone down?
01:49No, actually, in New South Wales.
01:52We've got really, really high rates of vaccination, but we're still seeing surges of both a whooping
01:57cough and of measles in unvaccinated populations.
02:01OK.
02:02Do you think lockdowns of COVID have anything to do with this?
02:07Yeah, so with the COVID lockdown, what we saw was not only people having vaccine fatigue,
02:14so potentially not wanting to get vaccinated, but more importantly, or just as importantly,
02:20it's people that had these two to three years of having no exposure to viruses.
02:25And now we're out and about and seeing each other again.
02:28There's a lot more virus in the community of whooping cough, but also of all of the other
02:33respiratory viruses going around as well.
02:36And presumably, the kids don't have the immunity from it because they didn't catch these sorts
02:40of things when they were locked up in COVID.
02:42Yeah, so less so for whooping cough, pertussis, but definitely for influenza, RSV, and all
02:48of the others.
02:49And just finally, how do you stop the spread?
02:52What is the advice from the medical profession to try and minimise your risks?
02:57Yeah, so it's if you're worried, see your GP, and we're always happy to do telehealth,
03:03especially if you've got a regular GP that you see to talk to you.
03:07It's to get your vaccination, and if you're sick, stay home, wear a mask, hand sanitiser.
03:12All the things that we know and love from COVID, we know works.
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