South Korea reports increase in whooping cough and Mycoplasma pneumoniae cases in recent weeks
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that whooping cough, or pertussis cases have tripled in the past four weeks.
1,784 cases were reported in the past four weeks—92.8% were 7 to 19 years old (1,656 people: 1,171 people were 13 to 19 years old, or 65.6%, and 485 people were 7 to 12 years old, 27.2%).
By region, cases were reported in Gyeonggi (477 people) , 26.7%), Gyeongnam (467 people, 26.2%), Incheon (210 people, 11.8%), and Seoul (110 people, 6.2%).
As of June 15, the cumulative number of patients (2,537, including suspected patients) is already 2.5 times higher than the annual number of patients (980) in 2018, when whooping cough was very prevalent before the COVID-19 epidemic.
In South Korea, the pertussis vaccination rate for infants and young children is high at over 95% (97.3% for 1-year-olds and 96.8% for elementary school students), and despite the ongoing epidemic, no deaths or complications such as severe pneumonia have been reported.
Officials also report the number of hospitalized Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection patients increased (1.7 times) compared to the peak of the winter epidemic in 2023.
Among patients hospitalized over the past 4 weeks (5.4 to 6.3 weeks), 77.7% were aged 1 to 12 years (49.9% for 7 to 12 year olds, 27.8% for 1 to 6 year olds).
The number of hospitalized patients (1,451) over the past four weeks (5.4 to 6.3 weeks) among medical institutions (220 locations) participating in hospital-level specimen surveillance with 200 beds or more across the country is approximately three times that of the same period in 2019 (521) before the COVID-19 outbreak, and last year. This is about 8 times higher than the same period (185 people).
In consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency decided to issue a Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection epidemic advisory starting this year in order to quickly inform medical institutions of the Mycoplasma pneumoniae epidemic situation.