Italian paediatricians are on alert for whooping cough in newborns: “In 4 months 3 deaths and hospitalizations at +800%”
From January to May 2024 there were dozens of hospitalizations throughout Italy, the greatest number of cases in Campania, Sicily and Lazio. Sip: "High vaccination coverage is essential"
ROME – Three newborns have died since the beginning of the year and an 800% increase in hospitalizations of the youngest compared to 2023. The Italian Society of Pediatrics ( Sip), launches an alert for the pertussis epidemic widespread particularly among newborns and unvaccinated infants. After the alarm launched by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which highlighted almost 60 thousand cases of whooping cough across Europe during 2023 and up to April 2024, recording an increase of more than 10 times compared to the years 2022 and 2021, the Italian Society of Paediatrics (Sip) also launches an alert for the whooping cough epidemic which is mainly affecting unvaccinated newborns and infants and which has recorded three deaths since the beginning of the year with an 800% increase in hospitalizations compared to last year.
“HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS AND DANGEROUS DISEASE”
“Whooping cough is a highly contagious and dangerous disease, especially in the first months of life and in newborns who have a greater risk of complications and death. In this age group mortality is between 1 and 1.5%. We can protect this particularly vulnerable population through immunization of the mother, during the second and third trimester of pregnancy, highly safe and effective in protecting children who are still too young to be vaccinated”, declares the President of the Italian Society of Paediatrics Annamaria Staiano. “We invite pregnant women to get vaccinated against whooping cough because the lives of our little ones are at stake. It is unacceptable that in 2024 we could die from infectious diseases for which effective and safe vaccines exist.”
“IN ITALY 110 CASES REGISTERED IN 4 MONTHS, MORE CASES IN CAMPANIA, SICILY, LAZIO”
In Italy from January to May 2024, 110 cases of whooping cough were recorded, with over 15 hospitalizations of small infants in intensive care and three deceased newborns. The data were made known by Prof Alfredo Guarino, President of the Campania section of the SIP and were obtained as part of a Pnrr project, the Inf-Act project, which aims to develop new strategies for early identification, prevention and treatment of infectious threats. The data were collected in 7 highly specialized centers distributed across the entire national territory. The majority of whooping cough cases were recorded in Campania, Sicily and Lazio. “We have witnessed an increase in hospitalizations for whooping cough of 800% compared to 2022 and 2023 >, which in most cases involved unvaccinated newborns and infants under 4 months of age. 95% of the mothers of these children were not vaccinated and 80% had not received any information on the availability of a prenatal vaccination” states Alfredo Guarino coordinator of the Inf-Act clinical network.
“DATA IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG OF WHOOPING COUGH CIRCULATION”
“The developed model allows for the early identification of infectious threats through the continuous sharing of data between centers and the availability of a database that covers the entire national territory. The data refers to children hospitalized in serious clinical conditions and are therefore certainly to be considered serious cases, therefore, they are only the tip of the iceberg with respect to the circulation of whooping cough, as non-hospitalized cases are not considered. Dynamics and flow analysis provide trends but not absolute numbers which will only arrive later and therefore allow early interventions in terms of public health. In these circumstances, the World Health Organization considers bringing forward anti-pertussis vaccination in young infants even before the third month and an awareness campaign among the population and in particular pregnant women. The situation in our region, Campania, is particularly worrying, where we have recorded over 30 hospitalizations of infants suffering from whooping cough in the pediatric infectious disease centers of Naples”, continues Guarino.
“HIGH VACCINAL COVERAGE IS FUNDAMENTAL”
Seventeen patients were hospitalized for whooping cough in the first 4 months of 2024 at Umberto I in Rome, of which three ended up in intensive care. “In the same period last year we had only recorded one case,” says Fabio Midulla, Head of Emergency Pediatrics at the hospital and Full Professor of Pediatrics at Sapienza University in Rome. “This is the first epidemic peak of whooping cough after Covid-19; the reasons are not yet clear but appear to be linked to several factors, including the limitations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which interrupted the spread of common respiratory pathogens, also negatively influencing vaccination coverage”, continues Midulla. “To effectively combat whooping cough, it is essential to maintain high vaccination coverage throughout the population. The whooping cough vaccine does not confer permanent immunity and loses effectiveness over time. For this reason, in addition to vaccinating the pregnant woman, it is essential to do all the boosters provided for in the vaccination calendar at every age: three doses in the first year of life with the hexavalent, a booster in the sixth year, a further booster between 12 and 18 years and then every 10 years”, he concludes.
SICILY CASE: IN 5 MONTHS 40 NEWBORNS IN THE PALERMO EMERGENCY EDGE, 10 IN INTENSIVE CARE
And meanwhile from Sicily comes a cry of alarm. Forty newborns and infants with whooping cough have been intercepted in the last 5 months in the emergency room of the Cristina Hospital in Palermo, which is the reference point for western Sicily. Of these10 ended up in neonatal intensive care. In the previous season we had not seen a single case” statesDomenico CipollaPresident of the Sicily Section of the Italian Society of Paediatrics and head of the hospital’s pediatric emergency room. “Vaccination coverage in pregnant women in Sicily is extremely low”.