Immunisation against whooping cough: advice on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Lithograph, 1978.

[United Kingdom] : Issued by the Department of Health and Social Security, [1978]

1 print : lithograph ; sheet 39.1 x 33 cm

While you make up your mind about whooping cough vaccination, thousands of children are holding their breath. Whooping cough is back. In a serious way. ... There's an epidemic. Get your child vaccinated now. Lettering in full: "While you make up your mind about whooping cough vaccination, thousands of children are holding their breath. Whooping cough is back. In a serious way. The odds of an unvaccinated child catching the disease during childhood are between 1 in 16 and 1 in 30. At the beginning of September last year, there were 400 cases a week. Now there are 2,200 a week. And the numbers are rising. Rapidly. Whooping cough is a long and distressing chest infection. It can inflict irreversible damage on the lungs, and sometimes on the brain. It's highly infectious. Anybody can catch it. But babies and children are most at risk. For them, it can be fatal. Vaccines are among the safest and most effective medicines there are. The likelihood of their causing serious permanent reactions is extremely small. In the opinion of independent experts, with whooping cough vaccine the odds are about a hundred thousand to one against. Right now, the chances of your child catching whooping cough are not so remote. If your child is under six and hasn't been vaccinated, don't delay. See your doctor, clinic or health visitor. There's an epidemic. Get your child vaccinated now."

Dilys A. Cowan, Rufus has the whooping cough: a study of the decline in pertussis imminisation rates in the UK in 1974, the subsequent whooping cough epidemics and their aftermath, MA dissertation, [University College London], 2006

Wellcome Collection 2016666i