It started as a banal illness with high fevers, which, despite its name, did not manifest itself as a cough. “The son was very weak and exhausted, in short, like a rag doll. His fever fluctuated around 39 degrees Celsius, he also complained of headaches, but he didn’t have a cold and, surprisingly, he didn’t have a cough either.” Veronika described the beginnings of the disease. When it seemed to her that it was not a common cold or flu, she contacted the pediatrician. “She immediately did smears for the presence of whooping cough and was quite sure of the diagnosis. I objected that it was not possible after all, when Sebík was revaccinated last May and he didn’t cough at all.” she described her initial doubts to Veronica.
In a few hours, however, the doctor’s judgment was confirmed and Sebastian was immediately given strong antibiotics, Veronika had to inform the primary school in Prague 2 where she attends, and the hygiene station issued a recommendation that during the three-week incubation period that pertussis has, only vaccinated students should attend classes children.
Less effective vaccines?
According to experts, the described case is not an exception. “The higher occurrence of whooping cough is related to the fact that we gradually lose our immunity to it. This mainly concerns the elderly population. As with tuberculosis, there are a number of people who are from countries that do not have good health care and who can bring in whooping cough.” Pavel Dlouhý, head of the infectious disease department of the Masaryk Hospital in Ústí nad Labem, told Blesk Zprávy, adding that there is currently speculation as to whether the vaccination is working as it should.
His words were also confirmed by the head of the infectious department of the České Budějovice Hospital, Aleš Chrdle. “I would also rather say that the increase in disease is because the vaccine has changed. The previous one had a lot of side effects, which is why a milder vaccine was developed. It does not have as many side effects, but on the other hand, it is not as effective. And in teenagers, since they are already several years away from vaccination, immunity can already wane,” explained Chrdle, noting that, in addition, the pathogen of the disease could have changed, and the currently used vaccine is not so effective against it.
Sebastian’s mother calls for vaccination after her son’s experience with the disease. “I can’t imagine what the course of the disease would have been if my son had not been vaccinated at all. He was quite impressed,” she added.
He dies of whooping cough
According to data A total of 5,297 cases of whooping cough were reported to the State Health Institute between 1/1/2024 and 31/3/2024. From the data of the health yearbooks, it appears that more cases for the whole year were only in the three years just after the start of vaccination in 1958, in 1960 there were 5,568. This year, doctors have recorded two deaths of seniors infected with whooping cough and, according to information, one death of an infant in the Pardubice region. According to information from the Ministry of Health, the infant had several illnesses. “Whooping cough was not the immediate cause of the infant’s death,” Ondřej Jakob, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, told the editors of Blesk. The infant should have developed respiratory failure, sepsis and bilateral pneumonia.
