Mask-wearing is being encouraged again to help reduce the spread of a worrying disease that is spreading “rampantly” and disproportionately affecting young people.
Pertussis rates are at an eight-year high in New South Wales, and the number of young children going to hospital with pneumonia is more than double what it was this time last year.
For every 100,000 people in New South Wales so far in 2024, there have been 103.1 notifications of whooping cough, also known as whooping cough, the latest NSW Health respiratory surveillance report showed.
The last time the numbers were higher was in 2016, when the rate was 139.6 per 100,000.
“Respiratory diseases are very widespread in New South Wales at the moment,” said Professor Robert Booy, an infectious diseases pediatrician at the University of Sydney.
Mask-wearing is again encouraged to help reduce the spread of a worrying disease that is spreading ‘rampantly’ and disproportionately affecting young people (file image)
He told the ABC Whooping cough and mycoplasma that are “actively” spreading, especially among primary school children, are “causing pneumonia, hospital admissions, emergency room visits, and the need for antibiotic treatment.”
A NSW Health report advised people to stay home if they feel unwell and wear a mask if they need to go out to help reduce the spread of viruses.
Pneumonia rates among children up to 16 years old are “unusually high” and well above levels recorded over the past five years, the report said.
In early June, nearly 140 children under four years old were brought to emergency departments with pneumonia, more than double the 60 visits in the same period last year.
For children aged five to 16, the figure was much worse, with 400 at the beginning of June 2024, compared to less than 50 at the same time in 2023.
The New South Wales report said the increase was likely due to a specific strain known as “walking pneumonia”, which is often caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
The report states that this “is a common cause of pneumonia in school-aged children and epidemics occur every three to five years.”
The last epidemic in New South Wales was before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Rebekah Hoffman, president of the ACT and New South Wales branch of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said most people who contract Mycoplasma pneumoniae would not feel as bad, but could have a persistent cough for weeks or even months.
“But some children, especially if they are immunocompromised or have other respiratory lung problems, can become very ill and need hospitalization,” he said.
Social distancing during the pandemic, especially in 2020 and 2021, meant that children were not exposed to other diseases such as whooping cough and pneumonia.
“So there are a lot of susceptible young children in primary school, especially, who are developing whooping cough and spreading it in school and other settings,” Professor Booy said.
Whooping cough rates are at an eight-year high in New South Wales, and the number of young children going to hospital with pneumonia is more than double what it was this time last year (file image)
Before the pandemic, whooping cough tended to increase every three to six years, but Covid has seen this expand to every six to eight years.
Whooping cough can have very serious consequences for newborns.
“The children most at risk are the youngest…they need the protection of their mother being vaccinated during pregnancy, to develop antibodies that they pass on to the baby before it is even born,” Professor Booy said.
Data from the NSW health department also showed Covid remained “high” in the state.
