A whooping cough epidemic has been declared in New Zealand

New Zealand is recording the beginning of a whooping cough epidemic, the country's health ministry said Nov. 22.

"New Zealand is now in the early stages of a pertussis epidemic and a nationally coordinated response is underway. <...> The number of cases across the country has been rising steadily for several weeks and has now reached levels consistent with the thresholds for declaring a national epidemic," the ministry said in a release on its website.

In the four weeks from Oct. 19 to Nov. 15, 263 new cases of whooping cough infections were detected in the country, the highest number since 2024. The previous outbreaks were observed in May, June and July, the repeated increase in incidence began in September.

The main problem in the current situation representatives of the agency called the risk of severe course of the disease in children who are either too young to be vaccinated or whose vaccinations are delayed. In this regard, doctors pointed out the importance of timely vaccination of children and pregnant women.

Earlier, on November 13, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that in the coming weeks, the Marburg fever outbreak in Rwanda could be declared over if no new cases of the disease are detected in the country. The 42-day period required for this, which is longer than the incubation period, began on November 9.