Whooping cough dominates cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in Czechia

There have been 424 cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in the Czech Republic this year, compared to nearly 4,000 last year. The majority are cases of whooping cough, which, after years, can also infect vaccinated individuals. According to experts, the reasons include a decline in vaccination rates and, in the case of whooping cough, waning immunity years after vaccination as well as improved diagnostic methods.

In the Czech Republic, children are mandatorily vaccinated with two combination vaccines. The hexavalent vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b. The so-called MMR vaccine combines protection against measles, mumps, and rubella.

The more than 37,000 cases of whooping cough recorded the year before last were the highest since vaccination began in then-Czechoslovakia in 1958. Last year, the number dropped tenfold, and this year there have been 354 cases in the first quarter. According to experts, the disease tends to return in roughly five-year cycles, though the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this pattern.