Doctors warn parents to vaccinate their children, worried about the alarming increase in cases of whooping cough in children, also called “100-day cough”, which, if not treated properly, can lead not only to complications, but also to death.
Parents do not vaccinate their children against whooping cough. Archive photo
The increasing number of cases of whooping cough infection in children, especially in infants, who are extremely vulnerable, exploded in 2024 worldwide, which led doctors to appeal to parents to vaccinate their children. They warn that after emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination rates have fallen alarmingly, although there is a “classic” vaccine that immunizes against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and can be given to babies from the age of 2 months .
In Australia, for example, where in November a baby died from whooping cough, the highest rate of illness in the last ten years was recorded in Queensland, with young children being the most affected by this deadly infection, and specialists say that this it happens because of the relaxation, after the covid pandemic, of measures regarding hand hygiene, but especially because of parents’ refusal to vaccinate their children, notes DailyMail.
“There are additional factors. Part of that is declining vaccination rates … and we’ve seen both child vaccination rates and maternal vaccination rates decline recently. (…)The other factor is that, at least for a few years, we did all the right things and some extra things to reduce the risk of infectious diseases … and that probably reduced those numbers for a while“, say the specialists.
Two deaths were registered in Romania
In Romania, starting in September, after the school year started, the pediatric hospitals were stormed and the respiratory disease wards were filled with children who required hospitalization, because of the “100-day cough”.
“Whooping cough is a special respiratory disease produced by a bacterium called bordetella pertussis. Unlike a common cold, which lasts 7-10 days, in this disease the coughing episodes can last up to 100 days”, said Dr. Mihai Craiu, primary pediatric physician at the “Alessandrescu-Rusescu” National Institute for Mother and Child Health (INSMC).
As “Adevărul” has already written, babies are the most vulnerable to this disease, and hospitalization in their case is mandatory, but the infection can affect people of any age. The infection can cause pneumonia, brain damage, and occasionally death. The disease is dangerous for babies,
Unfortunately, two deaths due to whooping cough were also recorded in Romania.
The DTP vaccine immunizes against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough
Under these conditions, doctors all over the world call on parents and pregnant women to get vaccinated, to prevent infection with whooping cough.
The DTP vaccine, which immunizes against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, is given to infants for the first time at 2 months of age, then at four months, 11 months, 5 years and 14 years. After that, once every 10 years, same as adults.
It is part of the “classic” vaccines, found in the vaccination record of any child.
