Whooping cough outbreak kills at least 28 children

The spread of a severe whooping cough outbreak has been controlled in the central province of Urozgan after health workers finally reached the mountainous district of Gezab earlier this week. Officials at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) told IRIN the outbreak killed at least 28 children in its early days. "Fortunately the latest reports from Urozgan indicate that the outbreak has been prevented from spreading further," Ammanullah Hussaini, head of public information at MoPH, told IRIN on Wednesday. More than 10 doctors, equipped with antibiotics for 2,000 people and vaccinations for 2,500, were taken by a US military helicopter to the Gezab district, some 300 km south of Kabul, Hussaini added. Pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes coughing and gagging with little or no fever. An infected person has coughing fits that may end in vomiting, sometimes causing a "whoop" sound when the person breathes in. It is transmitted by contact with discharge from the nose and throat of infected individuals. While pertussis can affect people of any age, it's most dangerous for babies, who may develop pneumonia, convulsions and brain damage, sometimes leading to death. Young children who have not been immunised have the most severe symptoms. Serious complications are less likely in older children and adults, health experts say. Every year it kills more than 300,000 children around the world, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures, but patients can be treated with antibiotics. While all roads to the district in Afghanistan's remote central highlands have been blocked by heavy snow, reports of the deaths reached the capital last week. "Often during winter these inaccessible districts face outbreaks or other emergencies, but without a helicopter it is impossible to reach these areas," he said. There were outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and some other epidemic diseases in the northeastern province of Badakhshan and the southern province of Helmand last year and the year before. Hundreds of children were affected on each occasion.