Facing this issue, 28 cases of whooping cough had reportedly already been established in the first week of January by the Health Ministry of the Czech Republic.
It is now 3084, the number of which has not been reached since January 1963 at once.
Famous MP with whooping cough
The number of victims is rising and includes such famous names as the 80-year-old master of Prague city – Bohuslav Svoboda, who is an MP as well as an eminent gynecologist.
Although Dr. Svoboda’s cough and splutter were evident as he talked to parliamentary health committee meeting members, his irritation was somewhat clear because he doubted why he had to be there in the first place, as BBC News reported.
Although he mentioned that he was on the path of recovering from whooping cough and was on day six of an antibiotic course, “so I’m no longer infectious… or at least that’s what they taught me at school”.
Most of the people in the room broke into laughter. However, one member mentioned that” maybe he would at least wear a mask.”
The Prague branch of the Green Party took no pleasure in this. Public health rules forbid patients with whooping cough from going to places outdoors until they finish the whole course of the antibiotic drug.
Moreover, the party also filed criminal charges against the mayor for “spreading a contagious disease.”
The number of cases on the rise in the country
In Prague, since the number of cases in the country continues to rise, health officials have taken the matter as an urgent concern. It sent out a letter to the capital’s schools, saying any unvaccinated children must be sent home in the event of a confirmed case of whooping cough in a class.
This was immediately rejected by the head of the national public health authority, who reprimanded his Prague colleagues at a press conference. Schools could no longer exclude unvaccinated children even if it was in the best interest of the health board, she added, as BBC News reported.
Instead, all cases should be treated singularly, and each aspect must be considered, e.g., how long the child was still in the classroom.
Epidemiologists, including one who ran the government’s response early in the Covid epidemic, dismissed such claims with headshaking disbelief. The walking recommendation adopted by the revised health ministry rules is precisely the one that it would be advised to follow for the Prague authority, they said.
Vaccination status in the country
Vaccination against this form of whooping cough, which is called “black cough” in the Czech Republic, is carried out in this country on a compulsory basis.
It is otherwise administered, together with diphtheria, tetanus, polio, and other immunizations right from the infant weeks.
However, as far as official statistics go, immunization of whooping cough is considered to be at 97 percent of the infant population, which means that there are hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated children in the Czech Republic.