Thailand Faces Whooping Cough Surge: Urgent Call for Vaccination as Cases Reach 93

(CTN News) – Public health organizations in Thailand are urging people, especially in southern Thailand, to get vaccinated against pertussis, which is also known as whooping cough, due to an increase in cases. There have been about one hundred cases of infectious sickness in Thailand this year.

One person has died out of 93 confirmed cases of pertussis in Pattani between January 1 and November 22, according to yesterday’s disclosure by the Disease Control Department.

A medical doctor from Pattani Provincial Public Health, Dr. Anurak Saraphab, said that the victim was a baby who was just 18 days old and had caught the virus from relatives.

With 72 confirmed cases, Pattani had the nation’s highest case count, according to the report. One more thing: most patients live in the south, according to Dr. Chaloemphol Osotpromma of Songkhla’s Office of Disease Control 12.

Reports from Pattani and Narathiwat in the deep southern provinces were cited by Bangkok Post as the source of 81 of the 93 individuals who were diagnosed.

Infected children made up 54.7% of the total, with 11.5% falling in the one to four year old age bracket. None of these babies had gotten the recommended vaccinations or had gotten only a partial course.

Babies commonly catch pertussis from their parents or other adults. The fungus Bordetella pertussis causes the disease. Paroxysmal coughing, inspiratory whooping, and vertigo or vomiting after a coughing episode are all symptoms of this fungal infection.

Dr. Chaloemphol states that these symptoms can be deadly in some people and last for two or three months.

Babies must get the pertussis vaccine, along with the diphtheria and tetanus shots. Establishing community-level immunity against these illnesses requires a vaccination rate of 90% in each location, as stressed by Dr. Chaloemphol. Vaccination rates were much lower, at 62%, in a Deep South pertussis cluster location. Children as young as two months old are vaccinated.