"Good cough"/ Cases are increasing in Korça, Rado: Children should be vaccinated

2024-04-23 14:54:00, Aktualitet CNA

"Good cough"/ Cases are increasing in Korça, Rado: Children

Robert Rado

In the Pediatrics of the city of Korça, the "whooping cough" disease has affected more children than in previous years. 8 cases within this year have been registered near this pediatrics, an increased number of affected children, who suffered severe symptoms but fortunately recovered after hospitalization.

The head of pediatrics, Dr. Robert Rado, says that whooping cough is a contagious disease, which is characterized by three phases and lasts up to 3 months, while it is accompanied by a strong cough, breathing difficulties and even vomiting.

"Regarding the cases of whooping cough in the last month throughout Albania, not only here, an increase in cases has been noticed. Whooping cough is an infectious disease caused by a type of bacteria that is taken through the air route, it is a disease contagious which is transmitted from one person to another, from adult to child and from child to child. It is characterized by three phases which are the catarrhal phase, the paroxysmal phase and the covariance phase, which means it is a disease with a course of lasting from 21 days to 100 days, i.e. 3 months. The first phase is similar to all circulating viral respiratory infections, what changes is the second paroxysmal phase where cough predominates, which has special characteristics in the form of attacks of coughs that can break out during the day but rather appear at night and are attacks of prolonged cough that can be accompanied by difficulty in breathing or even vomiting. This type of disease is generally not accompanied by fever but the clinical characteristics of cough e make it distinct to notice that we may be in front of a good cough", he said.

Rado shows that this type of bacteria finds more ground in children under 1 year old.

"We have had a total of 8 cases, most of which were children under 1 year old, 4 of them were under 6 months, i.e. babies 1 month, 2 months who had the conditions to develop whooping cough. This type of bacteria finds a place and develops where it finds this place", said the doctor.

This is the year where these cases have increased, while in previous years there have been very few, if not any such cases. The small child is the most at risk of being affected and admission to the pediatrician becomes necessary.

"This is the year where we have increased cases. Other years have been very rare, if not zero. This year we had babies aged 1-2 months who stayed for about 2 and a half weeks for the reason that the greatest risk of whooping cough is in this age group. The younger the child, the more at risk because it is accompanied by strong coughing fits, blackening as a result of suffocation and a momentary interruption of breathing small and makes hospitalization necessary," said the doctor.

One factor that affects the worsening of cases of whooping cough in children is vaccination. The risk of these children is greater than children who have had the vaccine doses.

"Treatment of whooping cough is in two aspects, medication treatment if it appears and prophylactic treatment, which is related to vaccination. There have been cases where we have had unvaccinated children due to the parents' mentality. If we have such cases , the possibility of the reappearance of infectious diseases increases and these can be a source of infection for other children. In addition, vaccination should be done according to the calendar because if we have less than 3 doses of the vaccine, the risk is still great," he said.

The head of pediatrics, Robert Rado, says that in each health center there are special instructions from the Ministry of Health for the progress of each case after passing whooping cough, instructing parents to carry out vaccinations based on the established calendar. /CNA