The number of whooping cough cases has increased rapidly in recent weeks. In the first month and a half of this year, the GGD in the city received 85 reports of whooping cough, including seven babies. Three of them had to be hospitalized. None of those babies had been vaccinated, not even through their mothers. “We find the increase worrying,” said GGD doctor Charlie van der Weijden. “Children in particular sometimes cough so severely that they do not get enough oxygen.”
According to the doctor, the increase is because people rarely contracted the disease during the pandemic. “As a result, more people are susceptible to whooping cough and are now more likely to contract whooping cough,” says Van der Weijden. In Amsterdam, the GGD sees two to four times as many whooping cough cases as before corona.
Risk of death
For adults, the cough is annoying at best, but in young children the barking cough can become so severe that they have to go to the hospital. They can develop complications such as pneumonia, neurological problems or a lack of oxygen due to coughing, says Van der Weijden.
There is even a small chance that children will die if they do not receive proper care. For this reason, about half of the children with whooping cough who are younger than one year old are admitted to hospital, says Van der Weijden.
Declining vaccination rates
Another reason for the increased whooping cough is the declining vaccination rate. The GGD also sees this trend in Amsterdam, although it is less than in other large cities and varies per district. In addition to people having religious, cultural and life beliefs about vaccination, the Covid period has also sparked discussion, says Van der Weijde. “Confidence in the GGD has decreased. And many people also have doubts about vaccination because we rarely see these diseases anymore.”
The GGD says it is doing everything it can to regain trust, for example through walk-in consultation hours for vaccinations. “We want to make it as easy as possible and ensure that the information is available. We think it is important that people talk to a doctor if they have questions about vaccination.”
The measles
The GGD is also concerned about other infectious diseases for which vaccinations are possible. “Particularly with measles, the vaccination rate is not what we would like to see. We are already seeing major outbreaks in other countries, we are actually waiting for that to happen in the Netherlands as well.”
2024-02-22 18:12:21
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