Disease on the rise

Infant with whooping cough had to be ventilated

Whooping cough is on the rise: for the first time, two babies at the Kepler University Hospital (KUK) in Linz are being cared for in the pediatric intensive care unit. A two-month-old child was treated with a ventilator and blood exchange. An equally old baby with a pre-existing condition needed a neurosurgical operation.

One child is being treated on the normal ward and needs respiratory support. "We must have looked after eight to ten children at the same time in winter," reports KUK senior consultant Ariane Biebl. This is the first time that such a high number of severe cases and treatments on the intensive care unit have occurred on this scale and "that is alarming", says Biebl.

Whooping cough is particularly dangerous for babies up to the age of six months, even before they have been vaccinated. The little ones experience pauses and pauses in breathing. This is why they are continuously monitored in hospital, even older children.

Doctor advises vaccination
Biebl advises pregnant mothers to have a booster vaccination to give their baby protection for the first eight weeks of life. Everyone who has contact with newborns should check their vaccination status. Most infections occur within the family. Adults cough for longer, but do not usually become seriously ill; it only becomes dangerous if they have a chronic underlying illness, are immunocompromised or are elderly.

Whooping cough cases on the rise
"Austria is the leader in Europe in terms of infection figures because we have the lowest vaccination rate," says Biebl. While there were 400 cases in 2019, there were 1,600 cases of whooping cough in the previous year and this year's figure is significantly higher, says the doctor. The vaccination should be refreshed in the first year of elementary school at the latest, as the protection does not last that long. At present, this happens in the second or third grade.