The incidence of pertussis (whooping cough) is growing in Ukraine. Most often, the dangerous infectious disease affects children of preschool and early school age. This was reported by the Ministry of Health.

Epidemiologists record an increase in pertussis cases since 2023. Statistics show that over the year, the rate of infection has increased almost 20 times.

In January-February 2024, 515 patients were diagnosed with pertussis. In the same period in 2023, only 27 cases of the disease were recorded.

Pertussis affects mostly children - 95.9%. Most of them are children under the age of 10.

The Ministry of Health warned that pertussis is easily transmitted from one person to another and is highly contagious. The main way of transmission is through airborne droplets.

The disease is exhausting for patients of any age and weakens the body. However, the younger the patient, the greater the risk of complications.

In newborns and infants under one year of age, the infection is usually very severe and can cause apnea, a temporary cessation of breathing that can lead to death.

Symptoms of pertussis:

• the first symptoms resemble a common cold (fever, runny nose, cough);
• about a week after the onset of the disease, the cough intensifies and becomes spasmodic;
• in infants, there may be no cough, but from time to time there is a short-term respiratory arrest;
• the duration of the disease is 4-8 weeks, in severe cases, recovery can begin only after six months.

The Ministry of Health reminded that pertussis is easy to protect against through timely vaccination. All children are vaccinated against pertussis four times - at the age of 2, 4, 6 and 18 months. But if for some reason the vaccination dates have been missed, they can be done at any time. Pertussis vaccination is also recommended for expectant mothers between 16 and 32 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether they were vaccinated against pertussis in childhood.