Whooping Cough Booster for Adults in London: What the 2024 Outbreak Changed

Most UK adults haven’t thought about whooping cough since primary school. It’s one of those childhood diseases. Something babies get vaccinated against, something that feels distant and managed. Then 2024 happened.

England recorded 14,905 confirmed cases that year — the highest total since records began. Cases spread across every age group, every region, and every season. Eleven people died. The outbreak dominated health headlines for months and left a lot of adults asking a question they’d never considered before: when did I last have a whooping cough vaccine, and does that protection still exist?

For most adults in the UK, the honest answer is that it doesn’t. Not any more.

Why Your Childhood Vaccination Isn’t Enough

The whooping cough vaccine you had as a child was effective, however, protection from vaccination typically wanes within 4 to 12 years. Whether you had the preschool booster or not, if you’re a working-age adult in London today, your last pertussis-containing vaccine was most likely in early childhood. That protection is long gone.

This is why the 2024 outbreak caught so many adults off guard. The majority of confirmed cases — 58.7% — were in people aged fifteen and over. Adults with whooping cough often don’t recognise it straight away. The early stages look like a normal cold, and the characteristic cough can take weeks to develop. By the time a diagnosis is made, they’ve often been infectious for some time.

There’s also a wider problem. Vaccination rates among pregnant women fell from over 70% in 2017 to under 60% by 2024, reducing the protection passed to newborns. Fewer vaccinated mothers means more vulnerable babies. Adults who carry the disease without knowing it are a significant part of that chain. If you’d like to read more dive into our complete whooping cough vaccine guide for London travellers here.

What “Overdue for a Booster” Actually Means

Here’s where it gets practical. A standard DTP booster — the Revaxis vaccine we offer at £30 — protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and polio. It does not include whooping cough.

If you haven’t had any booster in the last ten years, you’re overdue for one regardless. That’s straightforward. But when you come in for that booster, there’s a choice worth knowing about.

Repevax — our whooping cough-containing vaccine at £65 — covers the same three diseases as Revaxis, plus pertussis. One injection, one appointment, and you leave with protection against four diseases rather than three. The difference in cost is £35. The difference in protection is meaningful, particularly given what we saw across England in 2024.

We’re not suggesting every adult in London needs Repevax. What we are saying is that if you’re already overdue for a booster, the conversation about whether to include pertussis cover is worth having. For most people, the answer will be yes.

What Whooping Cough Actually Does to Adults

It’s worth being honest about this, because whooping cough in adults is often dismissed as a mild inconvenience. For some people it is. For others it isn’t.

The first week or two look like a cold. Runny nose, mild cough, low-grade fever. The second stage — which can last one to six weeks — brings the coughing fits the disease is named for. Rapid, uncontrollable bouts of coughing that end with a desperate gasp for breath. Coughing severe enough to cause vomiting, broken ribs, and in some cases a collapsed lung. The third stage brings gradual improvement, though the cough itself can persist for months. The Chinese name for pertussis — the hundred-day cough — is not an exaggeration.

Adults who catch whooping cough lose weeks of normal life. Most can’t sleep properly. Many can’t work. Critically, many will transmit the disease to people around them — including babies — before they’ve been diagnosed or even recognised that something is wrong.

Repevax at Ealing Travel Clinic

Getting a Repevax booster takes under thirty minutes. We’ll review your vaccination history — or work with whatever you can remember if records aren’t available — assess whether Repevax is appropriate for you, administer the injection, and provide a vaccination certificate documenting exactly what you’ve received.

The vaccine is a single dose given into the upper arm. Side effects are typically mild: a sore arm for a day or two, occasional mild fatigue or headache. Serious reactions are extremely rare. Same-day appointments are often available — book online here or call us directly.

Repevax: £65 — single dose, includes consultation and certificate Revaxis DTP (without pertussis): £30If you’re also preparing for travel, we can administer other vaccines at the same appointment — Hepatitis A (£45) or Typhoid (£30) alongside Repevax, for example.

Planning Travel as Well?

If you’re also heading abroad, the same Repevax injection covers you for international travel. For a full guide to whooping cough vaccination for travellers — including destination-specific risk, timing, and accelerated schedules — read our complete whooping cough vaccine guide for London travellers. One appointment, one injection, covers both.

Additional Resource: UKHSA whooping cough data → https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk

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