United States: The Department of Public Health is issuing a warning about a rising health concern: pertussis which is also known as whooping cough.
This is ultimately very highly contagious respiratory infection, which could primarily affect children and is really becoming more prevalent. The CTDPH is advising parents to be vigilant and ensure their children are up to date with vaccinations to help prevent or stop the spread of this serious illness.
Vaccination Urged to Combat Growing Pertussis Threat
As reported by News8, “It’s unclear why we’ve seen the rise right now, but we can hypothesize that part of the pandemic effect — that maybe some children that either had delayed childhood vaccines or that vaccines in the 4-6 range or the 11-12-year-old range, where they would have been boosted, may not have received their vaccines, and that may be part of the reason,” Dr. Manisha Juthani, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
Drastic Surge in Cases: 93 in 2024 Compared to 11 in 2023
In the words, of CTDPH, this is the biggest outbreak in years; as of 2024, there were 93 cases, compared to 11 total for the entire year of 2023.
“That’s almost a tenfold to last year,” Bridgeport Hospital Yale Medicine Pediatricians Chair of Paediatrics Dr. Magna Dias said. “Bless you, bless you and whoop!”
Symptoms and Impact: A Concerning Situation for Families
Dias said ‘the whoop is very characteristic’ but kids don’t have to have the whoop. Dias opined that the flu-like disease begins as a flu and hence is transmissible and circulating until flu symptoms get worse in about 10 to 14 days of the onset.
“It is really very painful to see a child struggling with whooping cough or pertussis”, Dias said. “For the parents, and as a paediatrician when you watch a baby choke like this, when they are just trying to breathe in. Ten fatalities of babies due to pertussis in the UK.
Dias added that one of the reasons that continues fuels the outbreak is ‘vaccination rates are down’.
Community Reaction: Shock and Concern Among Parents
‘You start to lose that herd immunity which is very important because some kids are just too young to be vaccinated,’ she said.
Teams of sympathetic parents we interviewed Monday could hardly believe their ears, whooping cough is back.
