Whooping cough ordeal for Mia

Kate Winslet had to race her baby to hospital after she was diagnosed with potentially fatal whooping cough. The 25-year-old was advised to take five-month-old Mia in for treatment and observation.

Mia is now healthy and back at home with Winslet and her director husband Jim Threapleton.

Friends of the Titanic actress said she had been 'distraught' with worry when she discovered that what she thought was a cold could be far more serious.

The incubation period for whooping cough is usually about a fortnight - it starts in the same way as a cold with a runny nose, weeping eyes and a cough. Later the patient suffers coughing fits and vomiting.

Mia caught whooping cough despite being immunised against it at the age of two months. A friend of the couple said: 'Kate and Jim made sure she had the injections but Mia still appeared to pick it up.'

Winslet had taken time off since Mia was born, but next month she starts work on her next film, which is being shot at Shepperton. The film, a version of Zola's novel Therese Raquin, is a story of murder and illicit passion.

Related Links:

• The Daily Mail Article (scan)