According to the Robert Koch Institute, 330 cases of whooping cough were reported in Middle Franconia in the first half of the year (data status: June 12, 2024). This is twice as many as last year (160 cases). In Nuremberg, for example, the number of cases increased fivefold: from 20 in 2023 to 107 in the first half of 2024 alone. And the numbers also increased in all other districts and cities in Middle Franconia. Only the Nuremberg region was able to record decreasing numbers.
Risk of infection: 80 to 90 percent
Whooping cough (whooping cough) is transmitted by droplet infection through coughing, sneezing or talking. Almost every contact between a sick person and an unprotected healthy person results in infection, according to the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA). According to experts, out of every 100 infected people, 80 to 90 people will develop whooping cough. Infection is possible at any age. Whooping cough is a highly contagious and notifiable disease across the country since 2013.
Whooping cough is particularly dangerous for babies. They may suffer respiratory arrest. These are potentially fatal and require intensive medical treatment. Before vaccination was introduced in the 1930s, 10,000 babies died from whooping cough every year in Germany.
STIKO recommends vaccination
The Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen Health Department therefore recommends that it is important for people close to newborns and pregnant women to be vaccinated. It is recommended that pregnant women be vaccinated early in the last trimester of pregnancy because this is the only way for babies to get whooping cough antibodies before birth. According to the recommendation of the Permanent Vaccination Committee (STIKO), both children and adults should be vaccinated against whooping cough, according to the health department.
Not because of childhood illness: whooping cough in adults
Experts estimate that the number of unreported cases of the disease is much higher than the number of reported cases. Whooping cough doesn’t just affect children – on the contrary: two thirds of all illnesses occur in people over the age of 19, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). However, whooping cough in adults is difficult to diagnose because, unlike in children, the symptoms are very nonspecific. In a third of adult patients, the typical “harsh cough” is absent.
Booster vaccination every 10 years
For effective protection, basic immunization with three childhood vaccines at two, four and eleven to 14 months of age is necessary, according to the Nuremberg Department of Health. As vaccine protection is not permanent, booster vaccinations are necessary in consultation with your family doctor. In Bavaria in particular, there is still a lot to be done when it comes to boosting vaccination against whooping cough, says the head of the Nuremberg Health Department, Klaus Friedrich, on the health department’s website: Only 44.3 percent of the population has sufficient vaccine protection against whooping cough. The RKI recommends boosting the next tetanus/diphtheria vaccination for adults once with a combined tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis vaccination.