Since the start of 2024, France has faced an explosion in the number of cases of whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory bacterial disease.
A worrying phenomenon for health professionals. The number of cases of whooping cough in France is increasing sharply this year, according to health authorities. Already nearly 6,000 cases have been recorded in France since January, according to the Pasteur Institute, i.e. twelve times more than in all of 2023. The institution also warns of “a number of visits to emergency rooms, hospitalizations after a visit to the emergency room and SOS Médecins procedures for the syndromic grouping ‘whooping cough’ multiplied by seven between week 11 and week 22”, i.e. between the week of March 11 to 17 and that of May 27 to June 2, according to the data from SOS Médecins.
The number of cases of whooping cough recorded this year is also significant at European level: 32,037 cases were recorded between January 1 and March 31 compared to 25,130 in 2023, according to data from the European Center for Pertussis Prevention and Control. diseases (ECDC). This bacterial disease causes a persistent cough accompanied by fits or even vomiting for more than seven days. It is particularly contagious since a patient can transmit it to fifteen other people. Several clusters have been recorded in communities such as nursery and primary schools in particular.
An essential vaccination
Infants not yet vaccinated, the elderly or frail, and pregnant women are particularly at risk. Contrary to popular belief, whooping cough is not a childhood illness. Anyone can catch it. Health authorities advocate prevention and therefore vaccination. The latter first occurs between 2 and 4 months for babies, followed by a booster at 11 months. Other reminders take place at 6 years old, between 11 and 13 years old, then at 25 years old and every twenty years.
In France, over the period 2005-2015, between 122 and 509 children were hospitalized each year due to whooping cough, according to the Pasteur Institute. “The number of cases observed has decreased significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic, probably due to the barrier gestures adopted during this period,” we read on the institute’s website. According to Public Health France, globally, there are 40 million cases and 300,000 deaths each year.