A disease that hides behind the face of a common cold has arrived at Hagley College in Christchurch, adding another chapter to an outbreak that has quietly moved through New Zealand schools for months. Whooping cough carries a particular cruelty in its timing — a person becomes contagious before they know they are sick, spreading illness through ordinary acts of breathing and coughing. With four infant deaths since 2023 and a national epidemic declared in late 2024, this is not a story about a single school, but about how a preventable disease finds its way back into communities when collectiv
Whooping cough case confirmed at Christchurch's Hagley College
Four babies have died from whooping cough in New Zealand since 2023; the disease can cause severe breathing difficulties and complications in vulnerable populations.