Burgos confirms cases of whooping cough after two consecutive years without infections

Whooping cough has returned to the province, as confirmed by the Council’s epidemiological service in its latest report on notifiable diseases for 2023: 12 confirmed infections after two years without any infections. And although there are no official data for 2024 yet, the regional health service reports that more diagnoses of this respiratory tract pathology have already been confirmed than in the entire last year.

A resurgence of whooping cough is widespread in Spain – and much of Europe – but no positive cases have been reported in Burgos in infants or infants under 12 months of age.

Newborns are the most vulnerable population to this bacterial infection because the first dose of the vaccine is given at two months of age (along with the diphtheria and tetanus vaccine) and does not give them time to develop immunity. For this reason, in 2015 it was decided to strengthen the protection of babies against this pathology, which can lead to death, by offering the vaccine to mothers during pregnancy. According to the General Directorate of Public Health, in Castile and Leon, 90% of pregnant women support this measure, and the high coverage of the three doses of vaccine recommended in the first year of life is above 95% in the province. despite the increase in express rejections – prevented the re-growth of the population with the highest risk of complications.

But, although the vaccination schedule provides for recall at 6 years, immunity is lost over time. And since the bacteria that causes whooping cough (Bordetella whooping cough) circulates in the environment, it can cause spikes in infections because it detects people who are susceptible to infection. The head of the epidemiological department of Burgos, Cristina Ruiz, explains that “like other diseases, whooping cough is cyclical and recurs every four to five years,” but emphasizes that, unlike what happened before 2015, infections are now confirmed “in adolescents.” . , from 12 to 14 years old.”

(More information can be found in the print edition of Diario de Burgos this Thursday or here)