Roll up your sleeves, folks! We’ve got a whooping situation on our hands! That’s right, the notorious pertussis, affectionately dubbed ‘whooping cough’, is making waves across the picturesque landscapes of the deep South, and our trusty public health officials are beating the drum for vaccinations faster than you can say “Ah-choo!”
Now, I hate to be the bearer of less-than-stellar tidings, but the score stands at nearly 100 individuals already caught in this whooping fiasco since the year took off. The chatter from the Disease Control Department just dropped and it’s got our eyebrows raised: 93 diagnoses of pertussis between the first of January and the 22nd of November – and the kicker? We’ve lost one tiny soul in Pattani, turning this from a pesky cough to a heart-wrencher.
Imagine, an 18-day-old baby, barely opened their eyes to the world and already in a tussle with an unforgiving infection, passed down, not by chance, but by their very own kin. That’s the tale Dr. Anurak Saraphab, Pattani’s own sentinel of public health, relayed with a sigh.
Pertussis isn’t playing favorites either. Out of the infected bunch, 72 were from Pattani alone, putting it at the top of an unfortunate leaderboard. And Dr. Chaloemphol Osotpromma, knight in shining armor at the Office of Disease Control 12 in song-worthy Songkhla, pipes in that the South is where this whooping villain seems to have set up camp.
His findings? A whopping 81 out of 93 coughing contestants call the deep southern provinces home, and not just anywhere south, but particularly in spots like Pattani and Narathiwat. The age bracket hit hardest – those tender first months to four years of age, all of whom were either completely shielded from vaccines, as if it were kryptonite, or hadn’t quite finished their protective pokes.
Let’s talk pertussis itself – picture it as a freeloading fungus by the name of Bordetella pertussis. This uninvited guest favors the young, turning their coughs into a symphony of ‘whoops’ that could end in a faint or a grand exit of one’s breakfast. Dr. Chaloemphol, painting quite the grim picture, tells us to buckle up for a bumpy ride through cough county for a relentless two to three months.
But do not fear! Our heroes have a shield, a precious vaccine that stands between our little ones and pertussis, parading alongside other greats like diphtheria and tetanus. A staggering 90% of us need to bear arms (quite literally) for this vaccine to muster a community-sized fortress against these dastardly diseases.
Yet, hold on to your hats because this is where the plot thickens: in the deep South, our trusty defending line of vaccination stands, somewhat sheepishly, at just 62% – talk about playing dodgeball with the health of our community!
So listen up: kids need their first defence from two months on. The message is clear as a bell, echoed resonantly through thorny thickets and cotton fields alike – let’s turn that 62% into a roaring 100%. After all, a shot in the arm is a small price to pay for keeping ‘Old Man Whoop’ at bay.
Be First to Comment