It is hard to get in pharmacies, costs 200 zlotys and is only reimbursed for children. No wonder that vaccinations against whooping cough are not common. The data on the incidence of this dangerous disease are dramatic. In September, children will go to school – the epidemic may accelerate.
Whooping cough vaccines disappeared from pharmacies in a flash. From wholesalers, too. “They definitely haven't been available in the last month,” says Wojciech Wahl, a pharmacist. He admits that more and more people are asking about them.
This sudden interest from patients is reflected in the numbers. Diagnosed cases of whooping cough have been steadily increasing for four years, but by August 15, compared to the whole of the previous year, their number had already increased eleven-fold.
Whooping cough is generally a childhood disease, but now almost half of cases occur in adults whose immunity following childhood vaccination has lapsed.
Statistically, a sick person infects 12 to 17 people.
– When we released all pandemic restrictions, the bacteria had a chance to spread much more easily and we can say that a certain biological niche was created, which is now being filled by this compensatory so-called wave of whooping cough – comments Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski, Chief Sanitary Inspector.
This wave is difficult to control, because in adults it does not produce such clear symptoms as in the youngest, and the main one is a long-lasting, very tiring cough.
– It ends with the so-called “crowing” in which we take in air because we are starting to choke and somewhere after the body acidifies, the brain interrupts this coughing fit, the cough center, so that we can catch our breath – explains Dr. Jacek Kidoń, a pediatrician from the Municipal Clinic “Lecznicza” in Łódź.
It is very easy to get infected, because the whooping cough bacilli are transmitted through droplets. A sick person can be contagious for four to five weeks and statistically will transmit the disease to between 12 and 17 people.
In children, complications can be fatal.
The good news is that pertussis vaccines for children are available without any problems as part of the free vaccination program at clinics. The bad news is that last year, as many as 87,000 children did not receive this mandatory vaccination, and in children, complications can even be fatal.
– Pneumonia, neurological complications due to hypoxia, these are convulsions, hypoxic encephalopathies – lists Henryka Arndt, a pediatrician from the Pabianice Medical Center.
Drastic increase in whooping cough cases. “It is a highly contagious disease”Marek Nowicki/Fakty TVN
The last dose of the vaccine administered at school age provides immunity for 10 years, so every adult should receive a booster dose every decade.
The Minister of Health announces an intervention with the vaccine manufacturer and free vaccination against whooping cough for all pregnant women, so that children are born already immunized by the time they can be administered the first dose.
– If the Prime Minister allows such a regulation to be fast-tracked, it will be ready within a month. Pregnant women will be able to get vaccinated against whooping cough for free this year – announces the Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna.
According to the World Health Organization, whooping cough is one of the 10 infectious diseases most frequently causing death in children.
Main image source: TVN24