Whooping cough has been on the rise in Switzerland and Europe for the past year. Should we adopt specific measures to deal with it? Prevention practices vary according to region, and some pediatricians express a need for clarification in the face of the increase in cases and the expectations of worried parents.
Prevention focuses mainly on babies, because it is for infants up to six months that the disease can be dangerous, even fatal in children under two months. This is why it is recommended that pregnant women be vaccinated, as explained in La Matinale by Pierre-Alex Crisinel, doctor specializing in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases at CHUV.
“There is a vaccination offered to them from the second trimester for a transfer of antibodies to the newborn. In this case, protection will be effective during the first three months of life.”
But outside the period of 0 to 6 months, whooping cough is not a serious illness, assures the CHUV doctor. However, it is very annoying, generating a cough lasting several weeks. The objective therefore really remains the protection of infants, he continues.
>> Listen to the full interview with Pierre-Alex Crisinel in La Matinale:
Antibiotics to cut contagiousness
Regardless, cases of whooping cough are increasing overall, with outbreaks regularly reported in daycare centers and schools. If a person, child or adult, tests positive, they can take an antibiotic. But the medicine will not cure it, only cut its contagiousness.
The rules in Switzerland are the same everywhere, since they are the result of the recommendations of the OFSP. For nurseries, positive children are excluded during this antibiotic treatment. Concerning schools, the circulation of whooping cough is tolerated.
Different practices from one canton to another
As for knowing whether those around them will also be screened, or even treated preventively, practices are not the same everywhere. In Geneva, pediatricians questioned themselves this summer when they found themselves confronted with numerous cases
“We were a little lost between the recommendations and the concerns of parents,” explains Martine Bideau, co-president of the Geneva Pediatric Society, indicating that the latter had also received letters from the Geneva Health Office indicating to them case of whooping cough in their child’s class.
“So it also created a certain anxiety in the population. And it’s true that we had difficulty following what is really planned for sporadic cases. We would perhaps have liked to have more explanations or that we tell me how to do it, because we had the impression that, between pediatricians, there was a certain heterogeneity in the care”.
Physicians’ sensitivities vary. Some advocate the circulation of the disease without worrying too much. Others would recommend strict quarantine for any positive person, child or adult, for the duration of antibiotic treatment, on average five days.
Deborah Sohlbank/fgn
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