2024-07-22 09:00:09
To combat the whooping cough outbreak that has affected France since the beginning of 2024, The High Authority for Health (HAS) published new vaccination recommendations on Monday July 22. Since January, in fact, at least seventeen people have died from respiratory infections of the widespread bacteria, including twelve children aged one to two months, one 4-year-old and three adults. over 85 years old.
This revival is attributed to the combination of two phenomena. On the one hand, the cycle of this infection rises every three to five years, usually in the summer, and the last peak was back in 2017. On the other hand, the social restrictions linked to Covid-19 has temporarily slowed down the spread of respiratory diseases, and their release then causes a resurgence.
In the first quarter of 2024, almost twenty clusters were reported to the Health of France, which occurred mainly in families or communities: nurseries and primary schools, day care centers, center and high schools. From January 1 to May 26, 14,866 PCR tests were positive for pertussis, out of a total of 67,161 tests performed. That is a positive rate of 22.1%, compared to 3.7% in 2023. The average age of the patients examined is 26 years.
In the city, the number of SOS-Doctor procedures for the diagnosis of asthma increased fifteenfold between the week of March 4 to 10 (20 procedures) and of June 17 to 23 (around 300 procedures). During the same period, the weekly number of visits to emergency rooms for whooping cough increased sevenfold, according to the Oscour network.
“Communication campaign”
In this epidemic situation “by”THE HAS responded to a reference from the Director General of Health on July 26. “Babies are the first victims of the revival of whooping cough, underlines Anne-Claude Crémieux, epidemiologist and chairman of the technical committee of the HAS. And immunizing pregnant women is the most effective way to protect them. » true, “The placenta is an important organ that concentrates the protective antibodies produced by the mother in the womb”, explains pediatrician François Vié le Sage, head of the vaccination group of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics. An infant, who can be vaccinated at the age of 2 and 4 months, will only be truly protected by vaccination from 4 and a half months. Before this age, it is vulnerable to severe forms of cough. So important are the antibiotics you get from your mother… when you are vaccinated during your pregnancy.
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