Flu vaccination is also for children!
Flu vaccination is recommended annually, particularly for people at risk such as those over 65, those with obesity, those suffering from chronic illnesses, pregnant women and caregivers. Recently, the High Authority for Health (HAS) also recommended influenza vaccination – without making it compulsory – for all children and adolescents, from 2 to 17 years old, even without associated illnesses (comorbidities).
It is said that the cough specific to whooping cough resembles a rooster crowing – nothing to do with “cocorico”, it is more for its serious and repetitive nature. Whooping cough, and its attendant colds, fever, dry cough, is one of the very contagious diseases of early childhood, a long-term respiratory bacterial infection. Public Health France has just published updated whooping cough surveillance data from the Renacoq network in France, as it does every year at the same time.
This time, the network is reporting greater circulation of the disease in the territory since the start of the year. “Nothing very exceptional,” notes Doctor Karim Tararbit, health monitoring doctor at the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional health agency (ARS). “In fact, whooping cough progresses in cycles of recrudescence every three to five years. Since the last peak of whooping cough, with 162 cases reported in France, the number of cases has continued to decrease to reach 34 cases in 2020 and 4 cases in 2021 in infants. We expected a logical rebound in 2022, which did not happen, undoubtedly due to health measures linked to Covid which slowed down transmissions. »
Cases have been increasing since the end of 2023. In the first quarter of this year 2024, around fifteen clusters located in communities, nurseries, schools, daycare centers, as well as within families, total 70 cases, all reported to Public Health France , a figure that continues to grow. This phenomenon worries the health authorities a little because the reports of clustered cases indicate a resumption of community circulation of the bacteria, which could intensify in the coming months. But whooping cough is not a notifiable disease, and many cases, most of them, slip through the cracks of surveillance networks. The epidemic is well beyond the figures displayed by the Renacoq network.
Clustered cases in Capbreton
“We are seeing an increase in the number of reports,” explains Dr. Tararbit. We are far from having a precise vision of the situation – a priori we should be informed as soon as there are grouped cases of at least two patients in the same community. But children with a cough, runny nose and slight fever are not always diagnosed. However, we noted cluster cases of seven children in Capbreton, in Landes. In April, we also had reports of affected adults, but no hospitalizations for whooping cough were mentioned by the network. »
“Vaccination is compulsory from the first months of the baby, who risks great if he is not vaccinated,” continues the ARS doctor. A priori, the first coverage in France is good, but immunity does not last more than around ten years, and boosters are increasingly neglected. Today, the reservoir of the disease is made up of young adults and adolescents without vaccination coverage or with insufficient vaccination coverage. This disease, much more contagious than Covid, can be very serious in infants, or in pregnant women who do not necessarily all have a booster before pregnancy – however, the risk of miscarriage is real, in cases serious. Ideally, those around the babies should be reminded to create a cocoon around them. In any case, a well-vaccinated mother, during her pregnancy or just before, protects her baby during the first months of his life…”
Prevention and vaccination
In the event that the disease is diagnosed, there are specific measures to observe, in particular the eviction of the child, who is better kept at home in order to limit the possibility of contagion in communities. The prescription of antibiotics is necessary for subjects who have not been vaccinated or people at risk – either elderly or immunocompromised. An update of the vaccination of the exposed population is also necessary.
“It is obvious that vaccination is the first asset to curb the disease,” continues Doctor Karim Tararbit. Early primary vaccination of infants as soon as they are old enough to be vaccinated, around the age of 2 months, is essential, but the administration of boosters at 6 years, 11-13 years and until adults are widely recommended to maintain a correct level of immunity. Today we note an increase in the lack of vaccination boosters, which is undoubtedly at the origin of this resurgence. »
