In Kazakhstan, there is a worrying rise in whooping cough among young children. In three months of 2024, about 400 young citizens with symptoms of this highly contagious respiratory disease were recorded in the Republic of Kazakhstan. 90 percent of them are children under the age of 5 years, 24KZ reports.
The Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan reported that cases of whooping cough are at their highest level in Astana and Karaganda, Atyrau, Pavlodar and Aktobe Regions.
In Kazakhstan, children need 3 doses of the whooping cough vaccine: the first dose at 2 months, the second dose at 1.5 years and the third dose at 6 years. However, there is a dangerous trend — many parents refuse to vaccinate their children against this disease.
This year, Multidisciplinary Children’s Hospital for Contagious Diseases 3 in Astana has admitted 204 children with whooping cough, of which 116 have complications of the disease. Head of the department of contagious diseases Zhanar Bokenova said most of them have not been not vaccinated against whooping cough.
Doctors have warned of the serious dangers of whooping cough that is marked by such symptoms as a persistent cough, vomiting, seizures and, in rare cases, can be fatal due to bleeding on the brain. They remind that timely vaccination is the only way to prevent this disease.
