Whooping cough, asthma and mumps question?

Medical question for you guys in the know. Ok my husband Chris has asthma, recently he's had the most dreadful cough, so bad that at times I thought he would stop breathing, I'm not exaggerating. So he went to the doc and he had a coughing fit while she examined him which was lucky. She said it was whooping cough, now he was amazed because we get vaccinated against all that as kids. But she said because some parents are not vaccinating their children whooping cough has come back but the vaccinated ones aren't protected as the disease mutates over time! Strangely enough, there's been a spate of mumps in my kids' school, now I thought that some parents were being irresponsible and not having kids vaccinated, but not the case, it's the same as whooping cough apparently, those who don't vaccinate get it, but it mutates and the ones who have been vaccinated aren't protected as the disease has mutated. We know of 4 children and one teenager in our village who have been really ill. Has anyone else heard of this? Plus chris was told not to take his inhaler when he has a coughing fit as he would be overusing it and it would then be of little use. The fits although getting more infrequent are very frightening as he goes bright pink and struggles to breath and exhale to cough at the same time. Any tips from asthma sufferers? Any thoughts on the mutating mumps and whooping cough, I mean I may have misunderstood but if true is very worrying. Thank you.