Czech Republic struggles to contain the surge of whooping cough
The incidence of whooping cough is increasing across Europe, and the Czech Republic is experiencing a similar trend. However, amidst a week marked by confusion over official guidance and a controversial public appearance by Prague’s mayor, some are questioning the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Czech authorities, there were 28 documented cases of whooping cough in the first week of January. However, this number has now surged to 3,084, reaching levels not seen since 1963.
Among those affected is the 80-year-old mayor of Prague, Bohuslav Svoboda, who also serves as an MP and is a prominent gynecologist.
During a parliamentary health committee meeting, Dr. Svoboda, visibly irritated and battling his symptoms, questioned the necessity of his attendance, revealing he was on the sixth day of an antibiotic course for whooping cough.
While most attendees chuckled at his condition, one colleague criticized him for not wearing a face mask. The Prague Green Party, however, took a more serious stance, filing criminal charges against the mayor for potentially spreading the disease in violation of public health regulations.
As cases continued to climb, the Prague public health authority issued a directive to schools, instructing them to send unvaccinated children home if a case of whooping cough was confirmed in their class.
This move was rebuffed by the head of the national public health authority, who argued that such decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, considering factors like the duration of exposure in the classroom.
Epidemiologists, including one who led the government’s measures against Covid, shook their heads in disbelief. Recently amended health ministry guidelines called for exactly the approach recommended by the Prague authority, they said.
But the confusion over the official guidance obscured a curious conundrum; what unvaccinated children?
Vaccination for whooping cough, known in Czech as “black cough”, is mandatory in the country.
It is meant to be administered, alongside inoculation for diphtheria, tetanus, polio, and others, from the very first weeks of life.
Yet according to official figures, immunization for whooping cough is estimated at 97% of the infant population, suggesting there are thousands of unvaccinated babies in the Czech Republic.
Health Minister Vlastimil Válek told Czech Television the current rise in cases is down to a combination of two things: a resurgence in respiratory diseases as society abandons strict Covid measures; and incomplete immunization in children.
The whooping cough vaccine is applied in five stages, the first three in the first 12 months of life. Almost all children receive these initial doses.
However, only 90% end up receiving the final two, administered around the ages of six and ten.
This, said Mr Válek, would explain why the greatest rise is among Czech teenagers.
Parents have been urged to check their children’s vaccination history. Adults are encouraged to go for booster shots.
In years gone by, dozens if not hundreds of babies and young children died in what was then Czechoslovakia from whooping cough each year, until the introduction of mandatory vaccination in 1958.
Experts say the modern population is still well protected by mass, state-administered compulsory vaccination.
The resurgence in cases, however, still carries dangers.
Those infected teenagers may suffer nothing more serious than a persistent cough. But they can still pass on what can be a fatal disease to their younger siblings – whose immunity is still forming – or indeed their grandparents, whose immunity may have faded.
