Worrying increase in number of whooping cough cases

“In the context of a global pertussis epidemic, an increase in cases has been detected in French Polynesia,” the Health Surveillance Office explained. “As of July 25, seven confirmed cases of pertussis were reported in one week, including six infants under three months old and one child aged two years, all residents of Tahiti.

Three of them were hospitalized. None of them participated in community activities. About 30 contacts who were not vaccinated on time or had not been vaccinated for more than 5 years received antibiotic prophylaxis. A total of 8 cases have been reported so far this year.

As a reminder, whooping cough can be very serious and even fatal for infants, as it is accompanied by respiratory or multi-organ failure. In France, 17 deaths have been reported since the beginning of the year, 12 of which were in infants 2 months and younger.

In young children, significant complications are pneumonia or neurological disease (convulsive seizures, encephalitis). In case of any suspected case, PCR must be performed on nasopharyngeal swabs within 3 weeks of the onset of cough.

Once a case of pertussis is confirmed:
• Doctors prescribe antibiotic treatment for patients and their close entourage, who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and who were exposed to the virus during the infectious period.
• Without treatment, the infectious period is 3 weeks after the onset of symptoms.
• Confirmed cases should not go out into the community. Relapses may occur after 3 days of treatment (azithromycin) or 5 days (other antibiotics). Suspected cases should also not go out into the community until test results are known.
• Isolation is recommended and at least barrier measures to prevent droplet contamination, hand washing and wearing of masks must be taken.
• Biological confirmation is required for symptomatic persons who are part of the entourage of a pertussis case.
• Updated vaccination with a pertussis-containing vaccine is recommended for exposed persons.
• Close contacts who are not protected by vaccination should receive antibiotic prophylaxis: children who are not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated according to age, children whose last vaccination was more than 5 years ago, and adults who are not vaccinated or have been vaccinated more than 5 years ago.
• Antibiotics can also be used for prophylaxis in casual contacts who are at risk for severe disease and are not protected by vaccination.

► COVID-19: S29 reported 103 test results with 18 new confirmed cases. The number of confirmed cases and the positivity rate in S29 increased compared to the previous week (21.4%). One patient was hospitalized with COVID-19. No admissions to intensive care units with COVID-19 were reported. Sequencing of samples carried out by ILM showed that, in addition to JN.1, the KP.2, KP.3 and KS.1 variants have also been circulating in French Polynesia since May. Vaccines remain effective against these FLiRT variants to prevent severe forms of Covid-19. Thus, a new mild epidemic wave, as observed in the rest of the world, is confirmed.