“A fairly explosive rebound”: whooping cough is on a very sharp rise again, unheard of “in 40 years” according to a researcher

La coqueluche touche près de 6 000 personnes en France actuellement. Illustration Unsplash

Nearly 6,000 cases of whooping cough have been recorded in France, reports the Pasteur Institute this Tuesday, May 4, which warns of a fairly explosive rebound.

Since the start of the year, whooping cough has returned to France. Fatima Aït El Belghiti, epidemiologist in charge of whooping cough at Public Health France, explained to Midi Libre at the end of April that whooping cough is a cyclical disease. Every three to five years, there are peaks, this is normal.

However, the latest data transmitted by the Pasteur Institute to the AFP show a scale not seen in France for at least 20 years&quot ; and "a still ascending phase of the epidemic", analyzed Sylvain Brisse, director of the National Reference Centers Institut Pasteur, at the press agency.

Risk of epidemic during the Olympics

Also invited by France Info, Sylvain Brisse confirms. "Indeed, I think we can talk about an explosion. We haven't seen this in over 40 years or so.

According to this expert, there is every reason to believe that the epidemic could continue "a few months, including during the period of the Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris.

To explain this new peak, Fatima Aït El Belghiti analyses: "We arrived at today with an immune debt, due to lack of security. rsquo;having been exposed to diseases, our antibodies could not renew themselves, there was no "update" of our immune system. As a result, upon contact with the bacteria, we develop the disease more easily.

As for the dangerousness of the disease, Sylvain Brisse recalls that it is children and newborns who are most at risk. Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself from this virus.