Tokyo, Jun 25 (Kyodo/APP): 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.
