Economy 14 October 2024, 3:16pm

Pertussis cases dwindle as flu season starts in Hungary

Portfolio

On the 40th week of 2024 (30 September-6 October), 51 suspected cases of whooping cough were registered by GPs in Hungary, according to the latest weekly report from the National Centre for Public Health and Pharmacy (NNGYK). The spread of the infection moderated further for the fifth consecutive week after picking up on the 35th week to 86 cases. The start of the school year was expected to bring about an upsurge in infections, but fortunately this still has not happened. The 'influenza season' has officially started on the 40th week, but it is expected to peak only only between the 3rd and 7th week sof 2025. The bad news is that there were a lot more respiratory infections on the week under review than in previous years. The good news is that this apparently helped dampen the spread of pertussis even further.

During the first week of October, the weekly number of suspected pertussis patients reached 51, below the previous week's figure (62) or this year's peak (89). The National Centre for Public Health and Pharmacy (NNGYK).confirmed the clinical diagnoses with microbiological tests in 9 cases and diagnostic tests still ongoing in the remaining patients.

Meanwhile, nearly 230,000 Hungarians sought medical help with acute respiratory infections, including almost 19,000 people with influenza-like symptoms on the 40th week of 2024. This marks the strongest start of the flu season in the past three years.

The 40th week is the fifth week in a row that caused a positive surprise, as experts projected a rise in the number of suspected pertussis cases due to the start of the school year and the consequent increase in social contacts.

The number of suspected pertussis cases reported for the 40th week brings the cumulative number to 954 this year, an outstanding figure compared to previous years when only a few cases were found in Hungary. This is strange, because the high rate of vaccination has meant that GPs have generally encountered these diseases mostly in textbooks, and very seldom in practice.

Symptoms

"Anyone who experiences a cough that lasts for weeks, possibly with a low or high fever that also lasts for weeks, can be considered for a diagnosis of whooping cough. In newborns, infants, unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children, this coughing symptom can lead to a much more severe, oxygen-deprived condition, which can be seen in the baby's mouth turning blue," Ágnes Galgóczi, the head of epidemiology at the NNGYK, said earlier. She reassured, however, that the disease is caused by a bacterium that can be treated well with antibiotics.

Most vulnerable group(s)

Portfolio has previously reported in several articles that the most vulnerable group is infants. They were also the group with the highest incidence on the 40th week. In the first 40 weeks of this year, 201 of all suspected cases, practically one in five, were infants, but the prevalence in the 40-49 age group is also rather high. If we look at a wider age group of children between 0 and 14 years of age, they make up 43.1% of all cases this year (411 in total), while up to 19 years the share is 53% (506 cases).