2024-07-06 04:30:06
Whooping cough is making a comeback in France, one of the worst epidemic outbreaks of the past three decades. Seventeen people have died since January 1, including 13 children. Twelve of them were less than 2 months old, and one was 4 years old. According to data released by the French Ministry of Public Health on Friday, June 28. SOS Médecins still reported an increase in pertussis cases in all age groups on Monday (+18%).
The disease is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused primarily by bacteria Bordetella pertussishas in fact never disappeared, since it was endemic in France, but such a high mortality rate has not been observed for decades.
“We have the impression that the mortality rate is very high”said Julie Toubiana, deputy director of the National Center for Research on Pertussis and Other Pertussis, while stressing that reporting bias exists because the disease is not subject to mandatory reporting. Compare, French researchers estimated in 2015 Between 1996 and 2012, 37 children died from whooping cough. The peak of the epidemic in 2012 has passed.
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How to explain such an outburst? The post-Covid-19 rebound effects associated with restrictions and mask-wearing are linked to the disease’s usual cycle, which cyclically triggers epidemics every three to five years. These two phenomena combine to affect undervaccinated people.
Maternal vaccination
‘We know that the mothers of the babies who died were not vaccinated during pregnancy’warns François Vie Lesage, a pediatrician in Aix-les-Bains (Savoie) and head of the vaccine group of the French Association of Outpatient Pediatrics. The 4-year-old also did not receive the mandatory vaccination since 2018.
Maternal vaccination is currently the only way to protect a newborn: the mother produces antibodies, which she can transmit to her fetus across the placenta from the fifth month of pregnancy. The baby is born with even higher levels of antibodies than his mother, which protects him for six months.
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This antibody legacy is crucial because babies cannot be vaccinated until they are two months old and their immune systems are still very immature. “Children are not truly protected until two weeks following the second dose at 4 months of age.”“, adds François Viet-Lesage. The whooping cough vaccine has only been recommended for pregnant women since 2022, but it is still used too little by doctors.
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