The disease, which is on the rise in France and Europe, has claimed two new small victims in a few days in Montpellier, the University Hospital of the Hérault capital is calling for the vaccination of pregnant women.
In a few days, two infants under 3 months died from a malignant form of whooping cough in Montpellier (Hérault), relates Midi Libre. According to Professor Eric Jeziorski, head of the pediatric post-emergency department at the city’s university hospital, “since the end of 2023, we have been facing many cases of whooping cough, around ten times more than usual“, calling on future mothers to be vaccinated before vaccination (less than a third are likely to be).
Indirect consequence of Covid-19
This resurgence of the disease is a consequence of the confinements imposed during the Covid crisis, responsible for an “immune debt” in individuals, which has “benefited” from whooping cough, one of the most transmissible diseases there is, recalls Eric Jeziorski.
Pertussis “clusters” multiplied by ten
An upsurge in cases of whooping cough confirmed since the end of 2023 in France and in Europe, often appearing in the form of “clusters”. On April 19, Public Health France counted “around twenty grouped cases (…) reported in 8 French regions” since the start of the year, or 10 times more than all of 2023.
In all, according to La Dépêche du Midi citing the Pasteur Institute, more than 5,800 cases of whooping cough were recorded in France between January and May 2024, adults and children alike, compared to 495 cases for the whole of 2023. That is 11 times more. And the number of cases is increasing: more than 1,400 in April, more than 3,000 in May…
A danger for infants
If whooping cough in vaccinated adults is often mild (especially if they caught it as a child, the disease being immunogenic), with downsides, it can however have serious consequences in children and especially in infants under less than 6 months. In 2021, 100% of babies under the age of one hospitalized were hospitalized for whooping cough. There were 4. In 2013, 94% of infants under 6 months hospitalized were for whooping cough, 30% of them found themselves in intensive care, mainly infants under 3 months suffering from whooping cough. a malignant form of the disease, potentially fatal. At this age, infants are weaker, since the first vaccination against whooping cough is not done until two months, and the second at four, before a first booster shot at 11 months.
“Usually we only have one case every two to five years at the University Hospital.comments Professor Jeziorski. There, we have already had several this year.” As a reminder, two infants under 3 months have died these days, after the death of an infant in April in Nice and another in May in Lille.
After a call for increased vigilance in April 2024 following the resurgence of whooping cough in Europe and France, Public Health France confirmed on June 7 “the start of a new epidemic cycle this year“.