Whooping cough is sweeping France and Europe again. This highly contagious bacterial infection reappears in cycles every 3 to 5 years, but has not circulated intensively in France since the Covid-19 epidemic.
“The children most affected by severe cases of whooping cough are babies under six months old, because they are not vaccinated or are not fully vaccinated,” Diane Demonchy, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases in the pediatric emergency room at the hospital, explains to BFMTV. Lenval. Nice.
To protect babies, the specialist advocates “the cocoon method”, or simply “vaccinating those around the baby to protect him.” Dr. Philippe Babe, head of this unit, points out that the majority of infections observed pass through parents “or another adult in close contact with them during the first 6 months of life”, relatives who “must” be vaccinated. .
Vaccination begins with the mother, during pregnancy, from the 18th week of gestation. This is the choice of Sophie, mother of a boy who is just seven weeks old.
“My midwife informed me at the beginning of pregnancy that it is very, very recommended to give the booster against whooping cough (…) this could help immunize the little one during his first months of life. So I took the. vaccine,” she explains.
Up to 10 times more cases in Europe
Whooping cough is not an infection that should be taken lightly. “Malignant” forms can lead to visits to pediatric intensive care “in case of ‘apneic’ cough and/or cyanosis (abnormal bluish discoloration of the skin, due to insufficient oxygenation of the blood),” recalls Philippe Babe in a statement. .
In general, there are more and more cases in the Old Continent, as epidemiologist Antoine Flahault explains, referring to “about 10 times more cases at the moment than one or two years ago.”
However, France is not in a crisis situation, according to the health agency Public Health France. “The French situation is not comparable to that of our European neighbors and those on the other side of the Atlantic, which have reported several hundred cases per week since the last quarter of 2023,” explains the organization. “Major” epidemics are occurring in Croatia, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Source: BFM TV
