Returns forgotten disease – the number of illnesses shot upwards

Two spruce nieces from pertussis are vaccinated. Mom has no questions – they know all the dangers of illness.

« There is no simple illness here as it may seem, as far as I am interested in doctors’ opinions and the like. When those kids fall into the intensive care department, it is not funny to be there when children need to be treated, » she said.

Spruce has been vaccinated more than once.

« Here, if we do not vaccinate, there will be no public immunity, the breakthroughs will begin, which is a bit now, » she said.

The disease with this acute infectious disease grows with leaps. From 7 cases in 2023 to nearly 900 last year. This year, the situation may seem even more difficult.

« There are twice as much pertussis in the first quarter as it was last year in the same period, » said Daiva Razmuvienė, an epidemiologist at the National Public Health Center.

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The pertussis spreads very quickly – by dripping air – coughing or sneezing.

« Those coughs are so seizures, meaning intense, that air dispersion. One person who is ill or carrier does not know that they are ill, in the form of asymptomatic, can infect 2 to 15-17 people, » explained D. Razmuvienė.

Medics say the pertussis was already forgotten, but after the pandemic curve shot up. People were wasolated at home, so a rare collision with bacteria weakened immunity.

« It can be calculated for decades that we haven’t seen such numbers hospitalized children for a very long time, » said Inga Ivaškevičienė, Head of the Santara Clinic Pediatrics Center.

The first vaccine against pertussis is at 2 months. Thus, newborns are particularly dangerous, even fatal.

« The child can cough for just a few minutes, has no time to be inhaled, they are cough before they are blurred.

Some of the children with last year are still returning to examination because they are experiencing residual events. According to the doctors, it is sad that even when the child is sick, parents are in no hurry to vaccinate them.

« It takes a long time to tell, trying to convince parents that vaccinations are the real immunity to protect against a terrible illness, » said Agnė Šimonienė, a family doctor at Hila Medical Center.

Oh, and from severe complications.

« Seizures, rib fractures, hernias occur, pneumonia, » said A. Šimonienė.

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Children are vaccinated at several doses of up to a year and a half. The vaccine is repeated for preschoolers and later about 15 years. However, fewer and fewer children will be vaccinated.

« In all these age groups, the volume of vaccination is reduced, less than 90, up to 88 and less. To control at least a bit of the pertussis bacterium, 95 percent must be achieved, » said D. Razmuvienė.

Pregnant women are also vaccinated in Lithuania for free – this is how the baby is protected from the disease, but not all are used.

« It is recommended to vaccinate for pregnant women and then mother’s immunity and specific immunity protect the baby for the first three months, » said Nerija Kuprevičienė, Advisor to the Ministry of Health.

Huge leaps of the disease are seen throughout Europe. The number of people with neighboring Poland grew a couple of thousands compared to last year.