The Department of Healthcare already noted in February that there were noticeably more cases of whooping cough infections in Flanders this year. The Department already counted 672 reports of whooping cough from the beginning of this year to April 12. This is much more than in other years, where on average fewer than 1,000 whooping cough cases were reported per year. New figures from March and early April confirm that whooping cough is still circulating more than usual in Flemish Brabant and Antwerp.
In children and adults, whooping cough causes troublesome coughing fits that last for weeks, but it can also cause an ear infection. Whooping cough is most dangerous in newborn babies: they become exhausted from coughing and no longer drink. Sometimes babies with whooping cough don’t cough, but they stop breathing occasionally. This can cause them to turn blue. This is now also evident from new figures on hospital admissions. Of the 50 children under the age of 1 year in whom whooping cough was reported this year, 23 had to be hospitalized, 21 of whom were younger than 6 months.
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“Newborn babies can become short of breath or severely weakened by the intense coughing fits of whooping cough,” says spokesperson Joris Moonens. “We therefore emphasize once again how important it is to vaccinate the baby against whooping cough quickly and in a timely manner and to also vaccinate the mother during every pregnancy. A baby can only build up good protection after 4 to 6 months with different doses of the vaccine. To bridge this period, a pregnant woman should be vaccinated between weeks 24 and 32 of pregnancy. In this way, she passes on antibodies to the baby at birth and it is better protected in the first months of life.”
Hilde Crevits, Flemish Minister of Welfare, Public Health and Family, is concerned about the figures. “I support the department’s call. Vaccination remains necessary to prevent these and other serious diseases. It is therefore important that mothers and babies are vaccinated against whooping cough in a timely manner. Pregnant women remain a target group that we must pay extra attention to, as this was recently laid down in our new vaccination health objective.”
Within the vaccination schedule, the whooping cough vaccine is given at 8, 12 and 16 weeks, 15 months, 6 years and 14 years. Adults should then be vaccinated every ten years. The vaccine is free.
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