Whooping cough cases surge in Scotland

The biggest outbreak of whooping cough for more than a decade is sweeping Scotland, with new figures showing thousands of cases this year.

About 2,230 people have been diagnosed with the infection since January, according to the monitoring agency Public Health Scotland (PHS), which has released figures for 2024 up to May 13.

This compares with 73 cases last year and 746 in 2019, before the pandemic was declared.

During the last major outbreak, in 2012, about 1,900 cases were detected north of the border during the entire year.

Vaccines for pregnant women to protect their unborn babies from the bacteria in the first months of life were announced towards the end of 2012 and cases fell sharply after the programme began.

In England five