Whooping cough cases surge to highest level in five years

The number of cases of whooping cough increased dramatically last year to the highest levels seen in five years, according to a recent infectious disease report.

Last year, there were 44 cases of whooping cough, including two outbreaks affecting nine people, a more than tenfold increase compared to the three cases seen in 2023. There were eight cases in 2020 and none in the intervening two years.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious yet vaccine-preventable infection, which can be lethal to infants under six months old, whose immune systems are less developed.

Measles resurgence

Last year also saw a significant increase in other infectious diseases; norovirus infections rose by a staggering 2,500% while measles saw a resurgence, rising from no cases in 2023 to 14 people being infected last year, according to the Infectious Disease and Control Prevention and Control Unit (IDCU) Report 2024.

Meanwhile, Legionnaire’s Disease – a severe form of pneumonia linked to contaminated water droplets from air conditioners, hot tubs and plumbing systems – more than doubled compared to the preceding year.

Known officially as Pertussis, whooping cough gets its name from the characteristic "whooping" sound exhibited in patients immediately after suffering intense coughing fits.

The infection is caused by the bacterium bortedella pertussis, starting out as an irritating cough which intensifies over two weeks, and if untreated can lead to pneumonia and seizures.

The rise in cases of whooping cough in Malta reflected a similar trend across Europe last year, which last May the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) noted could be linked to three to five-year epidemic cycles or gaps in reduced vaccinations.

“Decreased natural boosting in the overall population during the COVID-19 pandemic” was also listed as a potential reason behind the EU-wide surge by the ECDC.

The norovirus, also known as gastric flu, shot up from 27 infections in 2023 to 703 last year, the IDCU report found. There were more than 200 sporadic cases of gastric flu in 2024 and 48 outbreaks, two-fifths (42%) of which occurred in homes of the elderly, the report said.

While a vaccination uptake in Malta had managed to keep measles at bay throughout 2023 and the start of last year, by the end of 2024 there had been six individual cases of the disease and two clusters of outbreaks affecting four people each.

Dengue fever 

Mosquito-borne Dengue fever also re-emerged last year, with nine cases recorded following none the year before.

Meanwhile, various sexually transmitted infections (STIs) saw a rise; cases of Chlamydia increased by more than a quarter compared to the year before to 476 cases, while Gonorrhoea rose by 40% to 491 cases.

Syphilis cases rose to 299 cases last year, a more than one-and-a-half-times increase from the 116 cases in 2023.

COVID-19 and scabies

While various infectious diseases and STIs increased, cases of COVID-19 dropped by more than half; while 2023 saw some 4,650 cases, by the end of last year this had dropped to 2,195. Deaths from COVID-19 also reduced from 53 in 2023 to 30 last year. 

Meanwhile, scabies – a skin complaint caused by parasitic mites burrowing into the skin and laying egs – saw a dramatic drop, falling from 240 cases in 2023 to 34 last year.