Whooping cough epidemic? We don’t vaccinate ourselves, explains Prymula

Epidemiologist Roman Prymula claims that the whooping cough epidemic will probably not be completely stopped because the population is not sufficiently immunogenic. In addition, compared to Western countries, vaccination coverage is lower, for example, for pregnant women, it is below two percent. “We see that a few babies have already died in the surrounding countries. This is something that I would fundamentally focus on,” emphasized Prymula.

Screen Party TV Prima

Description: Roman Prymula in Party TV Prima

An epidemic of whooping cough has been spreading in the Czech Republic for several months; just last week, this disease was confirmed in more than 4,000 people. And according to epidemiologist Roman Prymula, no improvement can be expected in the coming weeks. “In a population that is not sufficiently immunogenic, it is difficult to stop an epidemic,” stated Prymula for CNN’s Prima News.

Fortunately, more than half of those infected are in the category of adolescents between 15 and 19 years old, where, thanks to strong immunity, the course of the disease is only very mild. “Adolescents are not in danger. We don’t need to revaccinate them mindlessly. We should solve the strategy in the long term,” declared the former Minister of Health.

For example, vaccination coverage among pregnant women is pathetic, and in some countries there are reports of deaths of infants as a result of whooping cough. “On the contrary, I appeal to the fact that vaccination among pregnant women is really comical. It was about 1.5%. If I compare it with a number of Western countries, where it is up to 80%, the difference is huge. We see that a few babies have already died in the surrounding countries. This is something I would fundamentally focus on,” explained the epidemiologist.

Although the epidemic is far from over, warmer weather could help and prevent the epidemic from growing further. “In general, the warmer weather obviously has an effect on the spread, because usually both viral and bacterial diseases spread in an environment that is cooler and wetter. So there shouldn’t be a dramatic increase anymore. Now we are already seeing a decrease in some regions,” added Prymula, and that there are now enough vaccines in the Czech Republic and others are being withdrawn from, for example, Canada or Great Britain.

The spread of whooping cough is linked by some to Ukrainian refugees, which was also pointed out by Professor Jiří Beran. “It is good to remember the words of the chairman of the Czech Vaccinology Society, Roman Chlíbek, who already in 2022, in the first months after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees arrived in the Czech Republic, warned about their low vaccination coverage. Considering that they lack basic vaccinations against many diseases, he warned in an interview with Deník.cz especially against measles, also against whooping cough, or tuberculosis,” recalled epidemiologist Beran.

But the Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) rejects such claims. “Whoever claims that Ukrainian war refugees are to blame for the increased incidence of whooping cough either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or is deliberately lying. Nothing in between! The increased incidence of whooping cough is associated with weakened collective immunity, with greater movement of people and with decreasing interest in vaccination. They face this in all developed countries. On the contrary, we manage to continuously vaccinate the children of Ukrainian refugees because they are interested in vaccination,” Válek refuted these claims, which have not yet been confirmed, on his Facebook.

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