Whooping cough surge in France: call for vigilance

Re-circulation of whooping cough, a highly contagious and sometimes serious disease,”starts in France“Since the beginning of the year,” notes the French Health Service, calling for vigilance and recalling the importance of vaccination.

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Re-circulation of whooping cough, a highly contagious and sometimes serious disease,”starts in France“year to date.

Photo: AFP/VNA/CVN

The health agency, in particular, warns about “clear increase in the number of cluster cases“: Since the start of 2024, around fifteen cluster cases have been reported in eight mainland regions, compared to two in Île-de-France alone for the whole of 2023.

“There were about fifteen clusters in the first quarter, mostly in communities (kindergartens, primary schools, kindergartens and kindergartens) but also family members, a total of 70 cases were registered“, according to a document published Thursday evening, April 18, on his website.

Whooping cough, a respiratory infection caused by bacteria, is very easily spread through the air through contact with someone who has a cough, mainly within the family or community.

It causes frequent and prolonged coughing attacks and can be serious in infants and vulnerable people (patients with chronic respiratory conditions, people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women). Deaths are rare but can occur especially in very young unvaccinated infants.

How “The resumption of bacterial circulation in the community may intensify in the coming months.“, French Public Health emphasizes that “vigilance remains necessary as public awareness of the disease and methods of prevention need to be increased.“, referring to vaccination.

Although the number of whooping cough cases has decreased significantly since the introduction of the vaccine,”bacteria continue to circulate“and affects more infants too young to be vaccinated, as well as adolescents and adults who have lost protection from vaccination, in part due to insufficient booster doses.

Whooping cough progresses with cycles of exacerbations every three to five years. In France, previous peaks of the epidemic were observed in 1997, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2012-2013 and 2017-2018.

“If recovery can be expected in 2021–2022, exceptional context and health measures (…) Whooping cough transmission may have decreased during the COVID-19 outbreak“, reports SpF.

Despite the current rise,”To date, the situation in France is not comparable to that of our European neighbors and across the Atlantic, which have been reporting several hundred cases per week since the last quarter of 2023.“, however, tempers the agency.

Significant epidemics have been reported in Croatia, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and significant increases in cases have been reported in Belgium, Spain and Germany. Deaths were also reported this week in the Czech Republic and in late January in Serbia.

AFP/VNA/KVN