Lleida, with 80 cases, has the highest rate of escalation of whooping cough in Catalonia.

According to data confirmed by the Ministry of Health, the regions of Lleida have already recorded eighty cases of whooping cough in the first month and a half of this year, while there were 77 in the whole of 2023. The incidence of this acute respiratory infection, caused by a highly contagious bacterium that causes a persistent cough, over the past year increased sharply throughout Catalonia, but it was in Lleida that the rate per 100,000 inhabitants increased proportionally the most. It rose from 0.23 in 2022 to 18.77 in 2023, and currently stands at 15.5 in 2024, according to the Catalan Epidemic Surveillance Network.

Pediatricians interviewed indicated that they diagnose many cases in Lleida, mostly in older children and adolescents rather than infants or young children. They emphasize that there were no serious cases. It is treated with antibiotics, but the cough usually persists for several weeks after treatment ends. They note that the vaccine against the disease, the last dose of which is given at age 6, loses effectiveness over time, but they say they do not know the specific reasons for the current increase in infection rates. In any case, they noted that the Ministry of Health should study the reasons, and emphasized that such situations occur cyclically. In this sense, the Report on the epidemiological situation of pertussis in Catalonia 2014-2024 emphasizes that outbreaks occur in cycles and that the last one was in 2015. “Since then there has been a decline, which has intensified during the pandemic” (Covid), influenced primarily by restrictive measures that have sharply reduced contacts between the population. We are now emerging from a post-pandemic period when there were practically no cases of the disease,” he elaborates, adding that “we have vaccines that protect against diseases and infections, but this protection is lost over time and such waves appear cyclically.”

One of the latest outbreaks in Lleida occurred in the capital’s Fedac school: according to the Ministry of Health, 7 cases were recorded, the first of which was identified 8. The center assures that there were only 3 and that the situation is in a satisfactory condition. control. In mid-January there was another case with 7 infected in an Episcopal school, also in the city of Lleida, and between November and December last year there was another with 11 infected at the Alpicat Institute. In all of them, Public Health has implemented a protocol that includes notifying families of students in the affected class to contact the Primary Health Care Center if they have a cough. Health also influences up-to-date vaccinations (see breakdown). Whooping cough is a notifiable disease, and preventative measures primarily focus on protecting infants by vaccinating pregnant women, immunizing children, and attempting to reduce incidence in adolescents and adults who are the source of infection.