More than 31,000 people have caught whooping cough this year in Japan, a nearly eight-fold rise from last year that has already surpassed the annual record-high number logged in 2019, data by a national health research institute showed Tuesday.
The country's health authorities are calling on the public to be aware of the highly contagious bacterial infection that causes severe coughing spells that experts say are most dangerous in infants and could result in death in the age group.
According to a preliminary data released by the Japan Institute for Health Security, a total of 31,966 cases have been detected nationwide from the start of the year, with 2,970 patients reported in the week ending June 15.
In the week before, weekly cases surpassed 3,000 for the first time since 2018 when comparable data became available.
By comparison, the total number of cases last year was around 4,000, and the 16,845 cases registered in 2019 was the record high for a year.
Many of the patients have been 19 and under and concerns remain that infants may contract the disease from their older siblings at home.
Whooping cough spreads easily from person to person mainly through droplets produced by coughing or sneezing. The first symptoms generally appear seven to 10 days after infection, such as mild fever and runny nose, followed by a hacking cough and a whooping sound when breathing, according to the World Health Organization.
Pneumonia is a relatively common complication, and seizures and brain disease occasionally occur, according to the WHO. Antibiotics are used to treat the infection, it says.
© KYODO
5 Comments
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spinningplates
Coming to a train near you...soon!
Uchida
They might be able to curb this by offering vaccines that are not astronomical. I get my Tetanus, whooping cough combo vaccine every 10 years. But when I asked some Japanese people they said it’s not covered by insurance here and it’s too expensive.
John-San
Get yourself and your children vacinated
Aoi Azuuri
One of far-rights parties spreads pseudoscience through social media since about 3 years before, it gradually weakens public health of Japan.
1glenn
With a population more than twice Japan's, the US has had fewer than half as many whooping cough cases this year. Last year we had fewer than 4,000 cases nationwide.
My doctor told me to get the tetanus/whooping cough shot every ten years, and I said "Yes ma'am!"
By the way, the literature says that even if one has had whooping cough in the past, natural immunity will not prevent one from passing it on to others, but immunity from the vaccine will.
The cost without insurance over here varies from $40 to $90 USD. With any kind of basic insurance the price ranges from free to $10.
Japan says it is worried about declining population numbers. Then why not make some basic effort to prevent very preventable deaths from whooping cough?