A few months ago, the Spanish Ministry of Health reported a death from choking cough a child whose mother was not vaccinated during pregnancy. The occasion was used to warn about the numbers of the outbreak of this disease, which leaves behind a trail of more or less serious cases throughout the country. Now this call for attention has been joined by the call European Center for Disease Control and Preventionwhose experts have just reported that the number of cases has already reached alarming figures.
Throughout 2023 and until 2024 60,000 cases of whooping cough in EU countries other than Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. This is 10 times more than recorded in the period from 2021 to 2022. You might think that this is a low figure, especially when compared to other pathologies such as influenza or COVID-19. However, we must remember that whooping cough is a disease that affects a very vulnerable part of the population, so it can be very dangerous.
Additionally, this is a condition for which we have a very effective vaccine, so outbreaks of this type that continue to be periodic are a cause for concern and we must take action. emergency measures.
The importance of whooping cough vaccine
Whooping cough is a disease caused by bacteria Bordetella whooping cough, This can affect anyone, but especially causes alarming symptoms in children. Initially, these symptoms are very similar to a common cold. However, over time, this can lead to a very severe cough, accompanied by difficulty breathing and a high fever. Its complications include pneumonia, seizures and a wide range of effects caused by lack of oxygen.
Therefore, there are people whose disease is asymptomatic, and there are people who become very dangerously ill. We have already seen that this is serious in children, but especially in infants, since their immune system is not yet developed enough to fight it and, in addition, They were unable to get vaccinated.
We have had a vaccine for a long time. In Spain, for example, it began to be introduced in the 1960s and was already included in the first vaccination calendar established in 1975. Since then, the vaccine has continued to improve as usual, saving many lives in the process.
It is currently included in a vaccine that also protects against diphtheria and tetanus. The first two doses are given 2 and 4 months. Then it is added revaccination at 11 months and another at 6 years. This is the general situation, but in recent years everything has changed.
In 2015, Spain experienced a major outbreak that even ended in the death of a child. For this reason, it was decided to vaccinate pregnant women so that their children would be born with antibodies against the whooping cough bacteria. It seemed like it was under control, but now things They shoot again.
Why are there still cases?
This surge in whooping cough cases is possibly multifactorial. As with measles, we cannot rule out that the rise of the anti-vaccination movement may have had something to do with it. Despite this, vaccination coverage remains above 95%. In pregnant women it is slightly lower, but exceeds 80%. This may lead us to doubt the origin of this new outbreak.
It should be noted that, as with other diseases, outbreaks are cyclical. Whooping cough usually has a peak incidence every 2-5 years. In this case, it is also increased by reducing children’s contact with infectious agents thanks to COVID-19 prevention measures. This does not mean that these measures were bad. They were very useful in their time and saved many lives. But it is true that something known as immune debt can occur.
On the other hand, although whooping cough vaccine is very effective, it has recently been noticed that it loses effectiveness over time. That’s why pediatric associations are starting to recommend adding more reinforcement in adolescents. This way, although they usually don’t get the disease seriously, younger children can be prevented from becoming infected.
This is the main reason why every vaccine matters. Despite the high coverage of pertussis vaccinations, we must be very careful; Thus, in the event of an outbreak, any unvaccinated person, whether due to the anti-vaccine movement or loss of effectiveness over time, could become a route of infection the most vulnerable people.
This European warning should not cause panic, but rather serve as a reminder to us of the importance of vaccines. Another study recently published shows that vaccines have saved 154 million lives over the past 50 years. Whooping cough is one of them, let’s not forget about it.
Source: Hiper Textual
