“I can say that the family members of all our doctors who work with infectious diseases are vaccinated,” to the portal lrytas.lt emphasized Darius Varaškevičius, head of the Children’s Emergency and Consultation Center of LSMU Kaunas Hospital. – My own children are already adults and have been vaccinated even with the vaccines that were paid for at that time, for example, against pneumococcal or meningococcal.
I paid for those vaccines out of pocket. Now parents have the opportunity to vaccinate their children for free, but still don’t do it.”
The doctor regretted that parents often assess the danger of infectious diseases for children only after hearing about a painful accident.
“When there is a serious case or there is a death, vaccination always becomes more active, because people start to think more seriously,” remarked D. Varaškevičius.
Oxygen starvation occurs
He explained that whooping cough is especially dangerous for babies and newborns, and the highest incidence is among children under 5 years old.
“If there is no vaccine, the child usually gets seriously ill. There is a paroxysmal cough, which is accompanied by respiratory arrest, and the whole body is in hypoxia as a result (state of lack of oxygen, ed. note).
The younger the patient, the more cysts are formed – both the brain and the respiratory tract are affected. Pneumonia can also develop, and these are very serious diseases for young children,” the doctor warned.
He added that about 30,000 cases are registered in Europe every year. pertussis cases, an average of 10 children die.
D. Varaškevičius emphasized that lung function does not always fully recover after an illness, and there is also a risk of irreversible brain damage.
“Cysts form in the brain, damage various centers and are usually a guaranteed invalidity,” said the doctor.
“When a child is hospitalized, most parents regret not vaccinating them.” They usually say that they didn’t make it or that someone didn’t recommend it,” added D. Varaškevičius.
The new school year is not far away. Soon the school benches will be full, children will be interacting with each other and it is natural that the risk of spreading infectious diseases will increase significantly.
“If we have such numbers of morbidity in the warm season, then I think that there will be significantly more infections in autumn, winter and spring and the situation will continue to deteriorate”, predicted D. Varaškevičius.
Vaccination of children has decreased significantly
The incidence of infectious diseases tends to rise every 3-5 years, but statistics from the National Public Health Center (NVSC) show an exceptional prevalence of whooping cough.
In the pre-pandemic period, i.e. 2019, the most cases of pertussis were registered in 2009, 2012 and in 2014 (cases 233, 154 and 143 respectively). This year – already 355 cases.
D. Varaškevičius confirmed that the increased morbidity is also reflected in the situation in hospitals.
“In the past, there was a more conscious and disciplined vaccination, and the scope of vaccination has decreased significantly. Because whooping cough is included in the combined vaccine, where the vaccine against diphtheria and tetanus is also included, parents’ motive is sometimes that they do not want to vaccinate their child against another infection.
Young people’s knowledge often comes not from a doctor, but from the vastness of the Internet, where only 30-35 percent. information is accurate. Everything else is the level of rumours,” said D. Varaškevičius.
Protected by a “cocoon environment”
NVSC emphasizes that from 2023 pregnant women can get a vaccine with a pertussis component free of charge.
“A baby under the age of 2 months is not vaccinated against whooping cough, so it has no immunity. It is often the case that there is an older child in the family who is not vaccinated and brings home the causative agent of the disease from the collective.
Since there are many unvaccinated children, the disease spreads faster. Recently, we had several more serious cases when brothers or sisters brought whooping cough from kindergarten or school,” said D. Varaškevičius.
He emphasized that when a “cocoon environment” is created in the family – everyone is vaccinated – there is little chance that the pertussis infection will be brought home.
According to the vaccination calendar, 2-, 4-, 6-month-old babies are vaccinated against whooping cough, 1.5-year-old, 6-7-year-old and 15-16-year-old children are vaccinated with booster doses of the vaccine.
“The vaccine is 100% does not protect against all diseases, but protects against severe forms. The problem is that full vaccination is not always obtained. Sometimes a child is vaccinated for 2, 4 months, and then there is no continuity. Then they also get sick, because revaccination is necessary,” said D. Varaškevičius.
Mother: the child fell in love – it was scary
Last week, the Republican Hospital of Šiauliai (RSHL) shared a story when all three daughters of Ieva Juškevičienė living in the Akmene district fell ill with whooping cough.
“I started not liking that cough anymore, and my daughter lost her appetite,” said the mother about the alarming behavior of the one-month-old baby.
After examining the little patient, the doctors decided to admit her to the hospital. “While in the hospital, the cough intensified and an attack even started. The child became pale, his breathing stopped for a few minutes – it was very scary”, I. Juškevičienė could not hold back the tears in her eyes.
Her other two daughters were also hospitalized due to whooping cough: ten-year-old Ema and eight-year-old Ugnė. They experienced severe coughing fits with vomiting.
The woman said that both daughters have been vaccinated against whooping cough, and the little one has not yet had time to vaccinate, as two-month-old newborns are vaccinated against whooping cough.
“Thank you” to mothers who are “heroes” or anti-vaxxers and do not vaccinate their children. Because of them, whooping cough is spreading, and we got sick and had to experience such a nightmare”, I. Juškevičienė complained.
“I don’t wish any mother to go through such a nightmare and see her crying child, whom she can’t help, except to ask for inspiration to recover,” the woman told the representatives of RSHL.
Head of the Children’s Infectious Diseases Department of the Pediatric Center of VUL Santaras Clinics, Assoc. Dr. Inga Ivaškevičienė emphasized a few months ago that whooping cough is a serious concern – the infection is also called the “100-day disease”.
“What is particularly worrying is that there is a very serious patient with whooping cough in the intensive care unit. The situation speaks for itself. Obviously, the condition is extremely difficult. We haven’t seen such cases for many years, and now they are coming back,” said I. Ivaškevičienė.
2024-08-23 11:33:10