Whooping cough, which is making a resurgence in France as in many other countries, has caused the death of 14 children since the start of 2024, already more than during the previous peak reached in the whole of 2017, according to data published Friday by Public Health France (SpF).
“Since January 2024 and until June 26, 2024 (…), a total of 17 deaths have been found: among them, 3 adults over 85 years old (in two regions) and 14 children under 15 years old (distributed in seven regions)”, indicated the health agency in an epidemiological report.
Twelve children who suffered from the respiratory infection were infants, aged one to two months, and one child was aged four. A final child, aged one month, “did not have whooping cough as the cause of death in the state but had been hospitalised for whooping cough a few days before”, according to SpF.
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After analysis of mortality data between 2015 and 2023, it appears that “the provisional number of deaths for the year 2024 already exceeds the total deaths reported in 2017”, the year when the greatest number of deaths among those under age 15 years had been recorded, namely ten deaths, said the health agency.
Whooping cough, a respiratory infection caused by bacteria, is transmitted very easily 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 (less than two months), who are more affected by serious forms.
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Worldwide, there are 40 million cases and 300,000 deaths each year on average. In France, the circulation of the bacteria that causes 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 the total for 2023.
“The magnitude of the peak and the duration of this epidemic cycle are not predictable”
This has resulted, in recent weeks, in “significant increases” in the number of visits to the emergency room, hospitalizations after visits to the emergency room, much higher than in recent years, and SOS doctors’ procedures.
Among other sensors, the hospital monitoring system (Renacoq network) 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.
And, according to SpF, “the magnitude of the peak and the duration of this epidemic cycle are not predictable”. In France, previous epidemic peaks were observed in 1997, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2012-2013 and 2017-2018.
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.
