2024-04-29 04:55:35
Health professionals insist on the importance of vaccination in order to protect against this disease which operates in waves and has been making a strong comeback for several weeks in France and Europe.
The alarm signal is sounded. A resumption of the circulation of whooping cough, a very contagious and sometimes serious disease for very young people, “has begun in France” since the beginning of the year, noted Public Health France on Thursday April 18, calling for vigilance and by recalling the importance of vaccination.
The health agency is warning in particular of “a clear increase in the number of cluster cases”: around fifteen cluster cases have been reported in eight mainland regions since the start of 2024, compared to two in Île-de-France alone over the entire year. 2023.
70 cases reported
“In the first quarter, around fifteen clusters, mainly in communities (nursery schools, primary schools, daycare centers and nursery homes) but also in families, and totaling 70 cases were reported,” according to this document.
Last week, the daily Nice-Matin reported the death of a three-week-old infant at the CHU-Lenval in Nice after four very young children were hospitalized. Two others are still in intensive care.
In waves
Whooping cough, a respiratory infection caused by bacteria, is transmitted very easily through the air, through contact with a sick person with a cough, mainly in the family or in communities. For example, if someone infected with Covid can contaminate three people, this figure can jump to 17 for whooping cough, a disease which returns in successive waves.
In France, previous epidemic peaks were noted in 1997, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2012-2013 and 2017-2018.
“It is a disease that occurs in waves and we find ourselves between last year 2023 and the first months of 2024 facing an extremely significant resurgence,” Professor Yves Buisson, epidemiologist and member of the Academy of Medicine, told BFMTV. Doctors.
It causes frequent and prolonged coughing fits, and can be serious for infants and vulnerable people (chronic respiratory patients, immunocompromised people, pregnant women). Deaths are rare but can occur especially in very young unvaccinated infants.
“Whooping cough in older children and adults causes difficulty in breathing and coughing while in infants it can cause respiratory pauses leading to cardio-respiratory arrest,” confirms, still on our antenna, Doctor Christophe Batard , pediatrician and member of the French Association of Outpatient Pediatrics.
The importance of the vaccine
As the “resumption of community circulation of the bacteria could intensify in the coming months”, Public Health France emphasizes that “vigilance remains essential, with the need to strengthen public awareness of this disease and its modalities prevention”, vaccination in mind.
“The last recommendation is to vaccinate pregnant women. These mothers will transmit antibodies against whooping cough to their newborn who will be protected by maternal antibodies,” explains Professor Daniel Floret, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Lyon.
On the other hand, if the current rises in France are cause for concern, they are of much less proportion to the situation experienced by several European neighbors. “To date, the French situation is not comparable with that of our European neighbors and across the Atlantic, who have reported several hundred cases per week since the last quarter of 2023,” thus tempers Public Health France.
Significant epidemics have been reported in Croatia, Denmark and the United Kingdom and significant increases in cases in Belgium, Spain and Germany. Deaths were also reported this week in the Czech Republic and at the end of January in Serbia. In the Netherlands, four infants have died in recent weeks.
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