Viral asthma & whooping cough

Not long ago, after our two year old developed full-blown whooping cough, I took her to our GP, prepared to face a reprimand for neglecting to have her vaccinated. However, the doctor diagnosed asthma and prescribed Ventolin. I was so unconvinced by this diagnosis that I consulted another GP within the practice. To my amazement he insisted that whooping cough no longer exists (due to mass vaccination) and confirmed the diagnosis of asthma. I then pressed for a sputum test to prove or disprove the existence of whooping cough.

I later received a patronizing phone call, following my doctor's discussion with our local consultant microbiologist. 'They do not test for whooping cough because it does not exist', I was told. I then asked, should the condition clear up in a few weeks, presumably asthma would have been an unlikely diagnosis? To which he replied: 'We now have a new condition called "viral asthma". He said they see many children with this condition. He added, 'Since they stopped testing for whooping cough there have been no recorded cases in our area.'