Since the start of the year, the whooping cough epidemic has caused seventeen deaths in France, indicates Public Health France this Friday June 28. Among the victims were three adults over the age of 85 and fourteen children under the age of fifteen.
14 deaths from whooping cough in infants
The health authority said that twelve children were one to two months old, one child was four years old and, “a last child aged one month did not have whooping cough indicated as the cause of death as it was but had been hospitalized for whooping cough a few days before.”
Whooping cough is a respiratory infection that is mainly characterized by coughing fits. This pathology can become serious and fatal in certain fragile people such as infants who have not yet been vaccinated against this disease.
Indeed, even if vaccination of infants against whooping cough has been compulsory since 2018, it only begins at the age of two months. The vaccination schedule includes three doses: at two, four, then eleven months. Then there are the reminders : at six years old, between eleven and thirteen years old and at adulthood (25 years old in general, with possible catch-up up to 39 years old).
“Retrospective analysis of data between 2015 and 2023 showed that the year when the highest number of deaths among under-15s was reported was 2017 with 10 deaths, reports Public Health France. The provisional death toll for 2024 already exceeds the total number of deaths reported in 2017.”
Whooping cough: an epidemic affecting all of Europe
But France is not the only country concerned. At the European level, l’European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) indicates that whooping cough is also increasing. Between January 1 and March 31, 2024, there were already 32,037 cases while for the whole of 2023, the health authority recorded 25,130.
To protect yourself from this highly contagious disease, Public health France recommends wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Indeed, according to the‘Health Insurance, “it is estimated that a sick person can contaminate on average 15 to 17 people within the family environment or the community.”
