Queensland health authorities have raised the alarm about an increasing incidence of whooping cough.

In the last few months there have been 14 outbreaks notified in schools in North Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Darling Downs, while there have been 1,595 notifications across the state this year, a 25% increase on 2017.

Dr Heidi Carroll from the Queensland Health Communicable Diseases Branch tells Mark that Queensland experiences an epidemic about every four years and the last was back in 2012.

Download this podcast here