2024-09-20 09:36:02
According to Public Health France, the circulation of the bacteria “has intensified in recent months”. For the Pasteur Institute, this is “the most significant epidemic in at least twenty-five years”.
The whooping cough epidemic is not abating. In a situation update on September 18, Public Health France still reports a “Very significant circulation of the bacteria which has intensified over the last few months”.
In community medicine, the first point of entry for patients into the healthcare system, “the incidence of confirmed whooping cough cases seen in general practice consultations was estimated at 134,639 cases for 2024”.
Moreover, if “the weekly number of SOS Médecins acts for a diagnosis of whooping cough fluctuated over the summer months”he’s staying “at very high levels”.
At the hospital, visits to the emergency room “have stabilized”, “but the levels still remain very high compared to previous years”.
The provisional toll stands at 35 deaths, including 22 children under one year old.
Pasteur Institute describes “radically different” face of epidemic
Why is the epidemic so virulent this year? Public Health France has identified strains resistant to antibiotics. The Pasteur Institute goes further.
In a September 18 publication, Pasteur Institute provides a scientific investigation into the reasons for the “dynamics of the whooping cough epidemic in 2024, the most significant in at least twenty-five years”.
According to researchers, the face “radically different” of the epidemic, cyclical, in 2024, gives rise to several hypotheses. First, “The lockdowns and barrier gestures linked to the “Covid period” have limited exposure to several pathogenic viruses and bacteria, including those causing whooping cough”.
Furthermore, genome sequencing of bacterial isolates of “Bordetella pertussis”, the name of the bacteria that causes whooping cough, shows the presence of antigens (to put it simply, the substance that triggers the production of antibodies) “rarely observed”. Who “play an essential role in the adhesion of bacteria to cells of the respiratory epithelium”.
Finally, “Scientists have also identified, for the first time in France since 2011, a bacterial isolate resistant to macrolides, the first-line antibiotics used against whooping cough.”.
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