The Czech Republic is grappling with a record whooping cough epidemic that is causing turmoil. More than 3,000 cases have been recorded since January, for a population of 10.8 million. According to the Radio Prague International website, the bacteria caused its first death on Monday, a man “aged around sixty”.
“Three thousand cases is a lot because we know that it is the tip of the iceberg, this figure only corresponds to people who have been tested. It is therefore an under-representation of what is currently happening,” confirms the Dr Donald Vinh, infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at the McGill University Health Center.
Whooping cough epidemics recur cyclically every five years or so. But the Czech Republic had not experienced such an outbreak since the 1960s. “The disease affects all age groups,” underlines the State Institute of Public Health on its website, while specifying that the adolescents are the most affected, because their parents had “ignored recommendations to give them a booster of the whooping cough vaccine at the age of 10-11”.
Vaccination against whooping cough is compulsory in the Czech Republic, but the protection given by the vaccine is not valid for life and requires boosters. Additionally, some people refuse to be vaccinated. According to the Czech magazine Respectcited by France Culture, the Czech Republic would have a complicated relationship with vaccination, attributable in particular to the influence of anti-vaccines during the COVID-19 crisis and the classic fear of side effects.
The media also calls into question the lack of monitoring and awareness. “In the case of whooping cough and diphtheria, people have no idea that they need to be revaccinated,” the article states.
In any case, a form of confusion seems to reign over the protocols to follow this time. The City of Prague hygiene service initially wanted to send home all unvaccinated students, hoping to prevent contagion. But this decision was overturned by the Ministry of Health, according to which the vaccination card is not a condition for class attendance.
“Both vaccinated and unvaccinated children can go to school,” insisted Matyáš Fošum, head of the public health department at the Ministry of Health, in the columns of the Czech media Novinky.cz.
The mayor of Prague in turmoil
Another controversy, this time surrounding the mayor of Prague, Bohuslav Svoboda, 80 years old. The latter is in turmoil after participating in several meetings last week without wearing a mask… even though he was suffering from whooping cough. Supreme irony: he is a doctor himself! The health service declared that the elected official “should have stayed at home”.
PHOTO WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda
According to the Czech media CT24, relayed by France Culture, the Green Party (opposition) for its part has decided to file a complaint for the spread of contagious disease. Defense of the accused in the columns of the daily Denik N : “I’m no longer positive because I’ve been taking antibiotics for six days… that’s what I was taught at school. I hope it’s ok… “
Matyáš Fošum, head of the public health department, believes that the disease has probably now reached its epidemic peak, reports Agence France-Presse. “The coming weeks will show us where we really stand,” he added.
Note that the Czech Republic is not the only country in the region to be faced with a whooping cough epidemic. In Slovakia, the Public Health Authority announced last Thursday that it had recorded 123 cases of whooping cough at the end of February. In January, Serbian media reported the deaths of at least four children during an outbreak in Belgrade, blamed by doctors on falling vaccination rates.
Whooping cough is a contagious bacterial disease that affects the respiratory tract and is transmitted through the air. The first symptoms may resemble a simple cold (runny nose, etc.), but they turn into a violent cough which can last five to seven weeks.
If whooping cough is not COVID-19 and we can protect against it with a vaccine, it can be dangerous, even fatal, adds the Dr Vinh. “The death rate is smaller than COVID-19 in terms of scale. But we don’t want to go back to a point where we have to relearn that it’s an infection that can be quite serious. We will see that this can easily overload a health system…”
With Agence France-Presse