The Early Noughties. The New Tests Aid the Re-discovery of Whooping Cough

After the millennium I could see clearly that the medical profession and the general public had been, and still were, oblivious to the fact that whooping cough was quite common and almost invariably missed as a diagnosis. Figure 15.1 shows the flatlined notifications after the millennium. But because it was not life threatening to the patients I saw, and the national death rate in infants was low, it was a situation I could live with. I thought that perhaps I knew a little better, but it was not of immense importance. I also knew from whoopingcough.net that under-recognition was a worldwide problem and not just happening in my small corner of the world. I was content to believe that the truth would eventually become clearer to everyone, but nevertheless it was frustrating. I wanted to make the information known but I didn’t know what more I could do other than my website to overcome the diagnostic paralysis.