2024-07-22 09:00:09
In response to the whooping cough epidemic affecting France since early 2024, The Health Service (HAS) releases new vaccination recommendations on Monday 22 July. In fact, at least seventeen people have died from the highly contagious bacterial respiratory infection since January, including twelve babies between one and two months old, a four-year-old and three 85-year-olds Adults and above.
This resurgence is attributed to a combination of two phenomena. For one thing, the cycle of infections peaks every three to five years, usually in the summer, with the last peak dating back to 2017. Transmission of respiratory pathogens whose release subsequently causes rebound.
In the first quarter of 2024, the French Ministry of Public Health reported about 20 clusters of cases, mainly in families or communities: kindergartens and primary schools, daycare centers, junior and high schools. From January 1 to June 26, a total of 67,161 PCR tests were conducted, of which 14,866 PCR tests were positive for whooping cough. This means the positivity rate is 22.1%, compared with 3.7% in 2023.
READ ALSO | Article reserved for our subscribers Serious outbreak of whooping cough in France
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In the city, the number of surgeries performed by SOS-Doctors to diagnose whooping cough increased 15-fold between the week of March 4-10 (20 cases) and June 17-23 (about 300 cases). During the same period, weekly emergency room visits for whooping cough increased sevenfold, according to Oscour Network.
“Communication Activities”
In the context of this epidemic “about”On June 26, HAS responded to a referral from the Directorate-General of Health. “Infants are the main victims of the resurgence of whooping cough. emphasizes Anne-Claude Crémieux, infectious disease expert and chair of the HAS Technical Vaccination Committee. And vaccinating pregnant women is the most effective way to protect them. » fact, “The placenta is a remarkable organ that concentrates the protective antibodies produced by the mother in the fetus”François Vié le Sage, a pediatrician and head of the vaccinology group of the French Association of Outpatient Pediatrics, explains. Babies can only be vaccinated when they are 2 years old and 4 months old, and they can only be truly protected by the vaccine from 4 and a half months old. Therefore, before this age, he is susceptible to severe whooping cough. So the antibodies he gets from his mother when she’s vaccinated during pregnancy are very important.
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