The Dickensian disease is the latest Victorian-era ailment to stage a comeback in the West.

The Dickensian disease is the latest Victorian-era ailment to stage a comeback in the West.

Just when you get rid of one cough, another emerges in its place.

While the the Covid-19 pandemic officially ended last year, cases of pertussis — or whooping cough, as it’s more commonly known — have been spiking across Europe in recent months.

The retro infection, a staple of Charles Dickens’ novels, is the latest Victorian-era ailment to stage a comeback in the West after an increase in measles, syphilis, gout, leprosy and malaria.

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A report from the British Medical Journal says that part of the reason for the spread is a drop in vaccination rates.

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Europe’s disease agency also suggested Covid could be to blame for the rise.

“The current increase is potentially linked to lower circulation during Covid-19 pandemic, combined with suboptimal vaccination uptake in certain groups during the Covid-19 pandemic,” it wrote in a March report.

Getting people vaccinated is key to stemming the outbreak, but that’s becoming easier said than done.

          • xmunk@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            14·
            7 months ago

            It’s ending life for a lot of people outside the antivax community, though. We need to get a lot more forceful about vaccinations and make them obligatory. I’m not certain in which way but this needs to happen.

            Vaccination can’t be optional.

            • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
              7·
              7 months ago

              Yes, unfortunately it becomes everyone’s problem, especially those who are immunocompromised. Once they lose the protection of herd immunity, they’re kinda fucked.

          • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            7 months ago

            I’d wager “them” are vaccinated and it’s their kids that are the ones getting these diseases and potentially dying.