2024-01-22 16:27:38
If France remains spared for the moment by the increase in cases of whooping cough which is affecting certain countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States, it fears a future resurgence. Whooping cough can be particularly serious in infants.
“We are watching this like milk on fire.” While cases of whooping cough – a bacterial respiratory infection which particularly affects infants – have increased in recent weeks in the United Kingdom and the United States, France is closely observing the evolution of this disease, explains Professor Sylvain Brisse , director of the National Reference Center (CNR) for whooping cough at BFMTV.com.
Across the Channel, 1,141 cases were detected in England and Wales from January to November 2023 according to the United Kingdom Health Security Agency cited by The Guardian. Compared to 450 for the same period in 2022 and 454 in 2021.
Likewise in the United States. The Florida Department of Health counts 86 cases of whooping cough observed in 24 of its counties, an “85% increase between July 2023 and December 2023 compared to July 2022 and December 2022”.
“The number of cases of whooping cough reported in December increased compared to the previous month and was higher than the average of the previous five years,” adds the ministry in its latest report. A similar observation was made on the other side of the country in Suffolk County in New York State, reports Le Parisien.
No “worrying increase”
France seems for the moment to be spared from the proliferation of the Bordetella pertussis bacteria responsible for the respiratory infection.
“There is currently no alert on whooping cough,” emphasizes Brigitte Virey, pediatrician and president of the National Union of French Pediatricians at BFMTV.com.
Same observation among the other specialists we contacted. Professor Sylvain Brisse affirms that the CNR for whooping cough, responsible for monitoring the evolution of the disease in France in babies under six months, has not noted “a worrying increase”.
“This does not exclude the possibility that there is circulation in the general population but there is generally a correlation,” he adds, specifying that whooping cough cases in France are currently comparable to their level at the start of 2020.
Public Health France had counted 35 hospitalizations in 2020 and 4 in 2021 among infants under 12 months, i.e. “the years with the lowest number of reported cases”.
“An immunological debt”
However, specialists expect an increase in cases. And this for many reasons.
The first one? The “immunological debt” that we contracted because of the Covid-19 pandemic, explains Andréas Werner, pediatrician and president of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics.
By protecting ourselves from Covid, via barrier measures and periods of confinement, we have also reduced the risks of being exposed to other pathologies, such as whooping cough.
The average level of antibodies being lower, “the fact of not being exposed to a gene increases the risk of catching the disease subsequently”, underlines the president of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics who specifies having observed the same pattern with chickenpox for example. The difference is that chickenpox confers long-term immunity, unlike whooping cough.
According to data from the Pari network, a national network for monitoring pediatric infectious pathologies, no case of this disease was detected between 2021 and 2023 by its 110 collaborators.
The national whooping cough network, Renacoq, reports 45 hospitalizations among infants under twelve months in 2022.
A cyclical illness
In addition to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, whooping cough is quite simply a cyclical disease, which returns every three to five years.
“According to data from the RENACOQ network collected from 1996 to 2021, six epidemic peaks occurred in France: in 1997, 2000, 2005, 2009, 2012-2013 and in 2017,” notes Public Health France.
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“The greatest numbers of cases (hospitalizations among those under 17 years of age, Editor’s note) of whooping cough were reported in 2000 and 2012 with 709 and 509 cases respectively,” it is specified.
“Given that Covid has disrupted everything and given the low levels in recent years, we must expect this to rise once more,” warns Professor Sylvain Brisse.
Specialists advocate vaccination
Vaccination is presented by specialists as the best defense once morest the occurrence of serious cases, which however remain rare.
Since 2018, it has been compulsory for infants, and several boosters (at 6 years old, between 11 and 13 years old and at 25 years old) are recommended. Although newborns are most affected by this disease – more than 90% of deaths from whooping cough occur in children under 6 months – parents are the cause of children’s infection in more than 50%. cases.
In adults, whooping cough will appear in the form of an intense cough that can last up to several weeks.
“In adults and older children, we can have whooping cough without being aware of it,” observes the president of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics, Andréas Werner.
The latter therefore recommends consulting a doctor if a cough persists beyond “fifteen days – three weeks”.
Especially since this disease spreads very quickly, particularly by air. An infected person infects 15 to 17 others on average, according to Health Insurance.
Since 2022, it is also recommended that pregnant women be vaccinated once morest whooping cough, “the best protection for babies” according to Professor Sylvain Brisse. This helps in particular to protect newborns under two months old, the age at which they can get their first dose. And age at which they are most exposed.
Between March 2016 and December 2019, four infants aged 7 to 20 days – not eligible for vaccination – died according to the hospital centers in the Renacoq network.
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