Outbreaks of whooping cough in Ukraine occur every 3-4 years.
In Ukraine, the incidence of a dangerous disease – whooping cough – is growing. The biggest threat is children. In infants, the disease can even lead to respiratory arrest. To avoid serious consequences, prevention should be carried out in advance.
About the symptoms of whooping cough, how to deal with it and whether there is a threat of an epidemic in Ukraine – Let’s talk further.
The incidence of whooping cough is increasing in Ukraine
In Ukraine, the incidence of whooping cough began to increase back in 2023. While the previous peak was observed in 2020. In particular, this is due to the fact that outbreaks of the disease are cyclical and occur every 3-4 years.
This year, 515 cases of the disease have already been recorded in the first two months. At the same time, during the same period last year, only 27 cases were registered.
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“Such an increase in morbidity occurs due to the accumulation of a significant number of unvaccinated children, 95.9% of all sick people are children, 4.1% are adults. Children in the age group from 1 to 9 years get sick more often, less often — 10-14 years old. The largest number of cases of whooping cough in 2023 was registered in the Volyn region (182), while in two months of 2024 the Rivne region leads in the number of cases (111 cases).”,” the Ministry of Health cites.
Why is whooping cough dangerous?
Whooping cough is a bacterial infectious disease that occurs as prolonged bronchitis with severe coughing attacks. Important: The disease is highly contagious and is spread through the air through coughing or sneezing. It mainly affects children and adolescents, but adults can also get sick.
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Infants are at risk; in them, the disease can cause temporary respiratory arrest. In addition, in newborns and infants the disease can be severe, with a high risk of complications and death. In particular, in Ukraine in 2023, a fatal case of whooping cough was registered in a child under the age of 1 year.
Older children and adults tolerate the disease more easily. Although they usually recover from whooping cough, the disease itself is very debilitating and greatly weakens the body.
Whooping cough symptoms
Main symptoms of the disease:
- the first manifestations resemble a common cold (fever, runny nose, cough);
- about a week after the onset of the disease, the cough intensifies and takes on the character of spasmodic attacks;
- in infants there may be no cough, but from time to time there is a short-term cessation of breathing;
- The duration of the disease is 4-8 weeks; in severe cases, recovery can begin only after six months.
Whooping cough and ARVI: how to distinguish
The disease is easy to confuse with the familiar ARVI. However, whooping cough is characterized by a severe spasmodic cough with a whistling sound that lasts more than 2 weeks. Infants may experience periods of “no breathing.”
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In addition, whooping cough cough may be accompanied by fever, runny nose and other symptoms. Newborns need special attention before the vaccination period – up to 2 months of age, as well as a certain period after the first vaccination to form an immune response.
Prevention of whooping cough – vaccination
Vaccination is the main means of prevention against whooping cough.
According to the Ministry of Health, according to the national vaccination calendar, children need to be vaccinated against whooping cough at the ages of 2, 4, 6 and 18 months, that is, four vaccinations.
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“To vaccinate children against whooping cough in the first year of life, vaccines against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus can be used with both acellular (AaKDP) and whole cell (AKDP) pertussis components. For vaccination of pregnant women, the AaKDP-M vaccine is used,” — noted in the Ministry of Health.
Pregnant women should receive vaccinations against whooping cough, diphtheria, and tetanus between 16 and 32 weeks during each pregnancy, regardless of whether they were vaccinated as children. This will help protect the baby from the possibility of illness in the first months of life before he receives the vaccine.
Let us remind you that in Ukraine it is distributed dangerous disease.
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