Czechs see record spread of whooping cough

PRAGUE: More than 3,000 Czechs have caught whooping cough so far in 2024, the highest figure since the 1960s, with teenagers the worst hit, health authorities said on Friday.

Doctors have registered 810 cases this week alone, and 80-year-old Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda said earlier this week he had overcome the respiratory illness in recent days.

But after he attended a political meeting without a face mask on March 13, the Green Party filed a criminal complaint against him for spreading an infectious disease.

The State Institute of Public Health said on its website that 3,084 cases of the disease have been detected since Jan 1.

“The disease is affecting all age groups,” it said, adding that teenagers were the worst-hit category.

Matyas Fosum, head of the public health at the health ministry, said the outbreak was probably peaking now.

And chief public health officer Pavla Svrcinova said no blanket measures were currently being considered.

Teenagers had been hit the hardest because parents often ignored the recommended revaccination at the age of 10-11 years, she added.