At least 364 whooping cough infections were reported to health authorities last week, according to figures released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking the worst Thanksgiving week for whooping cough in decades.
This exceeds the previous Thanksgiving record of 228 reported cases of whooping cough for the week ending November 27, 2010. That year, 27,550 cases were reported at the end of 2010, below the 28,167 already recorded this year.
Thanksgiving typically sees a slowdown in reported cases for most illnesses, due to delays in testing and reporting during the holiday as well as changes in the number of people seeking medical attention.
But this year wave of whooping cough The situation continues to accelerate in several states this week, including Ohio, which reported 84 cases. That’s the highest figure among any state, and more than the 67 whooping cough cases Ohio reported the week before.
“Pertussis can be cyclical. After seeing a decline in the number of reported cases in recent years – during and after the COVID-19 pandemic – nationally, pertussis is now returning to pre-pandemic trends. L ‘Ohio is no different,’ an Ohio spokesperson said. the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The Ohio spokesperson said this year’s increase remained “consistent with some years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic“, and has not yet exceeded the total number of cases reported in 2013.
Although the national case total remains below some previous records, the pace of weekly reported cases reached 577 before Thanksgiving, more than 10 times the same time last year and the worst in at least one year. decade.
Health officials cited a a variety of factors for this year’s wave of pertussis cases, including gaps in immunity due to vaccination or prior infection and the shift to safer but less effective vaccines in the 1990s.
“We must recognize that our vaccination rates in Montgomery County for school-age children are low. They have decreased since the pandemic, and they are lower than those of the state of Ohio, and also those of the United States. ” said Dr. Becky Thomas, medical director of the Montgomery County Health Department in Ohio.
In Ohio, Montgomery County has accounted for the largest share of cases reported in recent months, although it does not have the largest number of residents in the state.
About 63% of their cases were in schoolchildren and 12% were in daycares, Thomas said. The department often learns of outbreaks first from school nurses, who warn that large numbers of children are calling in sick from whooping cough.
Thomas said doctors have for months, the number of whooping cough cases has been high, higher than last year’s wave.
“We had an increase in cases last fall, but nothing compared to this fall. And when we started to notice a really significant increase, it was around the time kids were going back to school, so around the middle of August,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the vast majority of cases reported in the county said they had been vaccinated against whooping cough, although it was unclear if everyone was aware of the vaccines. A third of the cases involved adolescents, who are recommended to have received a booster dose before the age of 12.
“We have specific data on seventh-grade students’ immunization records that show rates of tetanus and pertussis vaccinations that they should be receiving at school are diminished,” Thomas said.
This year’s whooping cough outbreak also comes as health services prepare for the return of a expected wave COVID-19 and flu infections this winter.
“Whooping cough is not the only respiratory disease that concerns us. So we encourage people to stay home when they are sick, practice good hand hygiene, and see their health care provider if they need to. symptoms get worse or worse, and of course, get vaccinated,” said Jennifer Wentzel, commissioner of the county health department.
