Warrington bettering national trend on whooping cough

4:14pm Tuesday 18th March 2008

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NEW Government figures that show an increase in levels of whooping cough, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and cholera in the north west are not echoed in Warrington.

The Department of Health released the national statistics last week.

But in Warrington, the rates of whooping cough have fallen since 2000 from 10.5 cases per 100,000 of the under 15 population to 3.48 per 100,000 in 2006.

And 97 per cent of parents in Warrington are taking the opportunity to get their children vaccinated against whooping cough, which is more than the national target of 95 per cent.

There have not been any cases of cholera in Warrington this year, said Warrington Primary Care Trust.

And while rates of tuberculosis have risen slightly, the total number of cases is so low that even small rise adds a huge percentage increase, the PCT said.

In 2006 there were 4.6 cases per 100,000 of the Warrington population.

When it comes to TB, Warrington has lower than the national and regional incidence rates.

Provisional Department of Health figures for the whole of the north west show that in 2007 there were: 99 cases of whooping cough; 698 cases of tuberculosis; six cases of cholera; five cases of typhoid; 246 cases of mumps and 211 cases of scarlet fever.

Whooping cough is up more than 80 per cent over the past five years, and recorded an increase of nearly 100 per cent from 49 cases in 2006 to 99 in 2007.

Tory parliamentary hopeful David Mowat said the north west increases are due to national cutbacks in the number of health care staff.

"In no other country in Europe are we seeing year on year increases in whooping cough and tuberculosis," he said.