Baby’s can be highly affected by whooping cough as they are at risk from developing complications. Babies under the age of 1 will often need treatment in hospital, as it can cause significant damage to babies lungs as a result of this possibility they need a high level of medical support.
Medical support a baby may need are ventilation to support there lungs and intravenous medicine to support their blood pressure. if this doesn’t seem to work on the baby the specialist may then decide that the baby needs extra corporeal membrane oxygenation which is similar to a heart and lung bypass machine that delivers oxygen to the blood.
If whooping cough is diagnosed within the first few weeks of the infection it can be treated with a course of antibiotics from the GP to prevent the infection spreading further.