A rise in cases of whooping cough have health workers on alert in southern Kandahar province.
A source in Kandahar’s public health department said Saturday they have recorded 44 new cases of whooping cough in the last two weeks.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the illness has quickly spread in Yakhtol and Shah Kariz areas of Kandahar’s Ghorak district in the past five days.
According to the source, four of the patients are babies less than a year of age. All the patients are children under the age of ten, of which 20 are girls and 24 are boys.
The source said that although whooping cough can lead to the death in some cases, no deaths have been reported so far.
Whooping cough is an highly contagious bacterial infection of the respiratory tract that generally presents as severe coughing attacks. A vaccine is available but needs booster shots every ten years.
