Since the start of 2024, whooping cough has caused 17 deaths in France, including 14 children, according to Public Health France. The number of cases is already higher than the 2023 total in just six months.
Written on 01/07/2024
Hello Doctors – Newen Digital
Whooping cough, which is making a resurgence in many countries, continues to claim victims in France. “Since January 2024 and until June 26, 2024 (…), a total of 17 deaths have been found” according to the epidemiological report from Public Health France published this Friday, June 28. “Among them, three adults over 85 years old (in two regions) and 14 children under 15 years old (spread across seven regions)” the report states. This number is already higher than the previous peak reached in the whole of 2017.
Vaccinate pregnant women to protect their babies
12 children victims of this respiratory infection were infants, aged one to two months. Another was four years old. A last child, aged one month, “did not have whooping cough as the cause of death as it stood but had been hospitalized for whooping cough a few days before”according to Public Health France.
Whooping cough, a respiratory infection caused by bacteria, mainly Bordetella pertussis, is very easily transmitted through the air, through contact with a sick person with a cough, mainly in the family or in communities. Deaths are rare but can occur, particularly in infants too young to be vaccinated (under two months), who are more affected by severe forms. Hence the importance of vaccination in pregnant women to protect the unborn child, health authorities remind us.
80 12-month-old infants affected
These last weeks “significant increases” of the number of visits to the emergency room, hospitalizations after visits to the emergency room and SOS doctors’ procedures were observed in France. Among other sensors, the Renacoq network, a hospital monitoring system, recorded 80 cases of infants under 12 months hospitalized in the first six months of 2024, almost twice as many as in all of 2023.
On the European continent, 19 deaths from whooping cough, including 11 of infants, were recorded in the first three months of 2024, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). This count did not include French deaths.
Worldwide, there are 40 million cases and 300,000 deaths each year on average.
Also read: Death of an infant in Nice, the whooping cough epidemic continues
More cases than in 2023 in just six months
In France, the circulation of the bacteria causing whooping cough has been “very significant during the first half of 2024 and intensifying in recent weeks” according to Public Health France. It resulted in more cases than 2023 in just six months. It even appears that “the provisional number of deaths for the year 2024 already exceeds the total deaths reported in 2017”the year when the highest number of deaths among those under 15 was recorded, namely ten deaths, said the health agency.
In France, previous epidemic peaks were noted in 1997, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2012-2013 and 2017-2018. “The magnitude of the peak and the duration of this epidemic cycle are not predictable” according to the same source.
Against this epidemic, health authorities are reminding people of the importance of vaccination. It has been mandatory for infants since January 2018 and recommended for people born before this date.
