The circulation of the bacteria causing whooping cough, “very significant during the first half of 2024 and intensifying in recent weeks”, has led to a number of cases in the first six months of the year already higher than in all of 2023.
Fourteen children have died since the start of the year, 80 hospitalized: a strong resurgence of whooping cough, more virulent than in recent years, particularly affects newborns, who are more vulnerable, due in particular to poorer vaccination than the rest Population.
Given the unknowns about the scale and duration of the epidemic peak and the contagiousness of this respiratory infection, which is rarely serious, Public Health France called for increased vigilance in its report on Friday. “in the run-up to the major gatherings planned for this summer, particularly the Olympic and Paralympic Games” of Paris, especially for those most at risk.
SpF has reported a sharp increase in mortality for this disease which returns in cycles of three to five years. For ten years, the year with the highest number of deaths of under 15s was 2017 with ten deaths for the entire year, compared to only three in 2023 for example.
It is mainly infants, too young to be vaccinated (less than two months) against this highly contagious respiratory infection, who are most affected by serious forms, hospitalizations and deaths. Of the 14 child deaths recorded since January, 13 were under two months old and one died following respiratory distress induced shortly after contracting whooping cough, specified SPF.
“We see in this population of infants who have not yet been vaccinated dramatic forms of whooping cough with hospitalizations in intensive care, and sometimes fatal outcomes”Philippe Sansonetti, professor emeritus at the Pasteur Institute and the Collège de France, deplored to AFP, judging that “It is not acceptable to see this again in France today”.
To protect toddlers, Public Health France insists on the vaccination of mothers, and this during each pregnancy, since the fetus “benefits from the transplacental passage of pertussis antibodies which allow the child to be protected until individual vaccine protection is obtained”.
Vaccination of pregnant women allows, for infants less than three months old, “to divide the risk of whooping cough by four, halve the number of hospitalizations and reduce the number of deaths linked to whooping cough by 95%”also wrote the Ministry of Health in a press release on Friday.
Grouped cases
As for the grouped cases noted by SPF, “the majority of clusters are intra-family or occur in communities (nurseries, primary schools, middle schools and high schools) with a majority of cases not up to date with their vaccination”specifies SpF.
Those close to the newborn must also check that he or she is properly vaccinated against whooping cough, which requires boosters that are too often neglected, recalled Mr. Sansonetti. He observed “a real revaccination problem”, very important in whooping cough, because the new generation of vaccine is “extremely well tolerated but does not have the same effectiveness and duration of protection” than the older generation, which offered a very long immune memory but significant side effects.
Babies can in fact be contaminated by children just before the six-year mark, a phenomenon “not unexpected” vu “the duration of protection induced by vaccines”or that of twelve years according to SpF.
Vaccination against whooping cough is now one of the mandatory infant vaccinations, with one injection at two months and one at four months, then a booster at 11 months.
In addition to boosters at age 6 and then between 11 and 13, another is planned at age 25, then at any age for adults planning to have children or in close contact with babies.
The resurgence of whooping cough is affecting all of Europe: the ECDC (European Center for Disease Control) had already recorded between January 1 and March 31, 2024 more than 32,000 cases compared to 25,130 cases in 2023.
In the UK, since January, 181 babies under three months have been diagnosed with whooping cough, and eight have died from it. Worldwide, there are around 40 million cases and 300,000 deaths each year, according to figures cited by SpF.
