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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
With more cases this year in 5 months than in all of 2023, whooping cough seems to be exploding in France and affecting as many children as adults. What do you know about this disease and how to protect yourself from it? Update with Dr. Gérald Kierzek, medical director of Doctissimo.
Are you suffering from coughing fits, even in June? Be careful, you could well be affected by whooping cough. According to the Pasteur Institute, the number of cases is increasing very sharply this year in France, with almost 6,000 cases already recorded, which is “eleven times more important between January and May 2024 than over the entire year 2023″. In addition, the disease is particularly contagious.
A particularly contagious virus
Whooping cough, also called “the 100-day cough” (an ambiguous name) is caused by the particularly contagious bacteria Bordetella pertussis. According to the Pasteur Institute, apart from any vaccination, when a patient is infected, they can contaminate 15 other people on average, or 10 times more than Covid at the start of the epidemic. The disease is also what is called cyclical, with peaks approximately every five years. But this year 2024 seems to be a formidable “peak”.
“We have never seen this in more than about 40 years. Neither this number of cases, nor such a rapid increase” worried a few days ago Sylvain Brisse, head of the National Reference Center for whooping cough and other bordetelloses at the Pasteur Institute on France Info.
But this explosive trend, which is expected to last for a few more months, does not only affect France: the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark and even England are experiencing the same development.
What are the symptoms of the illness ?
Whooping cough is a respiratory disease that causes very intense coughing. In adults, it results in bouts of nocturnal coughing that never ends and consequently causes sleep disorders and depressive symptoms.
But it is in infants that the virus is the most annoying. In very young children who have not yet been vaccinated, the disease can be fatal.
In case of cough, Dr Gérald Kierzek reminds us, we wear a mask and we ask for a diagnosis.
“There is often a significant diagnostic delay because we do not think about whooping cough”.
A delay during which you can contaminate others. The treatment, on the other hand, is simple: antibiotics for 3 to 5 days. You are also asked to self-isolate and not meet any infants during this period.
Protection from whooping cough is based on vaccination. This is compulsory at the age of two, four and eleven months. “BUT reminders are not often done” deplores our expert. These must take place at 6 years, 13 years and 25 years+ (with possible catch-up up to age 39 inclusive). Vaccination is also systematic in pregnant women from the 2nd trimester of pregnancy (for each pregnancy), which ensures the passage of maternal antibodies to the fetus, thus allowing indirect protection from birth while awaiting vaccination of the infant.
In adults, the vaccination booster can take place every 20 years, for example at 25 years, 45 years, 65 years, also recalls Sylvain Brisse in his intervention.