In Bolivia there is a proliferation of cases of coqueluche. A respiratory disease with high daily infections, which has forced the adoption of emergency measures in the department of Santa Cruz, where eight people have died from this vaccine-preventable disease.
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The cases began to be registered at the end of last year, but a sudden increase set off alarms due to the high level of infections in a single day.
Bolivian Health Minister María Renée Castro declared: “We have 596 cases that have accumulated. We are quite surprised by what happened yesterday, we have a notification that it is the day that we have had the most cases of whooping cough with 99 reported cases “
“Of the 99 reported cases, we have 21 people up to five years of age and 78 people over five years of age,” he added.
Pertussis or whooping cough is a respiratory disease that inflames the trachea and bronchi. In addition, it causes violent spasmodic coughing with a sensation of suffocation.
As an emergency measure, a shortened vaccination was decided, which consists of starting the vaccination of infants before the regular periods and case tracking will be done.
The cases are concentrated in the department of Santa Cruz, where a high risk of contagion from health personnel themselves was also confirmed.
The epidemiology manager of the health service, Carlos Hurtado, added that “once the tests carried out on health personnel at the children’s hospital were completed, 75 people have tested positive for the disease.”
Percussion is preventable through the pentavalent vaccine that also covers diphtheria, tetanus, influenza and hepatitis, but parents do not immunize their children. So far, only 32 percent vaccinated have been reported.
Santa Cruz this year has endured other covid-19, dengue and influenza epidemics.
2023-07-29 11:31:22
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