Whooping cough is making a post-COVID-19 pandemic comeback in China, with cases surging more than 20-fold in the first two months of this year.
The world’s second-most populous country reported a combined 32,380 cases of pertussis — more commonly known as whooping cough — in January and February, compared with 1,421 cases during the same period last year, the Chinese National Disease Control and Prevention Administration said.
There were 13 deaths.
The number of infections detected in the first 60 days of the year is near the total for last year, underscoring the risk of the highly contagious respiratory disease in China.
The nation endured a major respiratory disease outbreak last year after pulling itself out of the COVID-19 mire in late 2022, well after other nations had thrown open their borders and allowed pathogens to resume their traditional circulation patterns.
China provides free vaccines for whooping cough, usually in a combined shot that also protects infants against diphtheria and tetanus.
Experts said that the vaccine-induced immunity tends to wane as children reach adolescence. Chinese health authorities do not mandate or provide booster shots to help shore up immunity.
Discussions are needed to determine if the country should update the vaccine it uses for the disease or adjust the immunization program, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Shen Hongbing (沈洪兵) said at a conference last month.
“It requires close attention to prevent and control the spread of whooping cough in China,” local media reports quoted Shen as saying.
Whooping cough infections have been rising in China since 2014, with more than 30,000 in 2019, the Chinese CDC said.
After a respite during the COVID-19 isolation days, they bounced back to almost 40,000 a year in 2022 and last year, the center reported.
Nuances around vaccination are contributing to the increase. COVID-19 disruptions, waning protection and genetic changes might all be playing a role.
Older patients can experience atypical symptoms, leading to misdiagnosis and allowing them to covertly carry and spread the infection.
Meanwhile, genetic changes might help the bacteria elude an immune system primed to detect it, allowing the pathogen to continue sickening even the immunized, a Beijing Daily report said.
Vaccination rates worldwide suffered during the pandemic. The percentage of children getting all three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis shot plunged to 81 percent in 2021, the lowest level since 2008, the WHO and the UN Children’s Fund said.
The disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis is transmitted through respiratory droplets. It’s a significant cause of infant death worldwide and continues to be a public health concern despite high vaccination rates, according to the WHO.
China is not alone in its comeback. Whooping cough is endemic and epidemic cycles are occurring every two-to-five years, despite vaccination programs, the WHO said.
Some European countries have posted rising cases since the middle of last year, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The Czech Republic is suffering its biggest outbreak since 1963, and both it and the Netherlands have reported whooping cough-related deaths.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS