Since the start of 2024, cases of whooping cough have been increasing sharply and laboratories are struggling to cope with the “resurgence in the number of tests”.
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The National Union of Medical Biologists is asking the authorities to authorize laboratory technicians to take nasopharyngeal swabs, as during the Covid-19 epidemic, while France is facing an increase in cases of whooping cough which is transmitted through the cough. There are 5,800 cases that have been recorded by the Pasteur Institute since January, or eleven times more in five months than in the whole of 2023.
Laboratories are overwhelmed by requests for PCR tests. “We would now like laboratory technicians to be able to carry out this type of sampling”explains on franceinfo Tuesday June 25, Doctor Michel Sala, vice-president of the SNMB. “Thank God it’s not Covid, but there is still an epidemic which is completely unusual. We have a high number of cases”he explains.
Laboratories are struggling to cope: “There is an increase in the number of tests and we are having difficulty meeting demand since the majority of laboratory staff are laboratory technicians. They do not have the right to take these famous nasopharyngeal samples even though they did it successfully for two and a half years”, during the Covid epidemic, he continues. Only doctors, pharmacists and nurses are authorized to take this type of sample.
