THOUSANDS of Bolton children are to be given a booster vaccination against whooping cough in the next two weeks.

The government has announced a nationwide fourth booster for pre-school children to prevent outbreaks of the killer disease.

Bolton has had no recorded cases of the disease in the past two years but 3,500 local children will be given the booster jab in community clinics from November 5.

The measures to introduce the extra jab against pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, has followed advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

They told the government that a combined diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP) should be given at around four years of age.

Currently the pertussis vaccine is given to children aged two, three and four months old.

Despite the high vaccine uptake at around 95 per cent, pertussis continues to pose a health risk and there is evidence that babies may be catching it from older brothers and sisters or possibly parents.

In England and Wales there are an estimated 35,000 GP consultations, 5,500 inpatient days and at least nine deaths annually from pertussis.

In Bolton, there were only nine cases in 1999.

The introduction of the booster at four years of age is expected to considerably reduce the number of cases nationally.

Letters

Dr Robert Aston, head of Bolton's communicable diseases, said: "Practice nurses and GPs will all have been informed and letters should already be being sent out to Bolton parents.

"This vaccine is perfectly safe. This is not a new vaccination.

"It is good news that we are taking another step to reduce the small numbers of outbreaks that occur across the country."

Dr Aston, a former JVCI member, is a strong believer in immunisation and urges all parents to take up the whooping cough booster for their children.

Dr Aston said: "Whooping cough is a horrible, terrible disease that can be prevented by immunisation."

Surprisingly, Dr Aston admitted that as a practising GP in the 1970s, he "made a terrible mistake" by advising parents not to take up the jab because of unfounded scares by a leading health professor.

Dr Aston said: "He was a very eminent person and I wrongly believed that there was something wrong with the vaccine so I wrongly advised parents against it.

"This was a terrible mistake. I watched all my own children suffer with whooping cough.

"Because of the scare, 200,000 to 300,000 people got whooping cough in this country and 74 died.

"It is vital that we keep a high uptake and protect our children."