Characteristics of the epidemic process of pertussis in Ukraine against the COVID-19 pandemic and martial law

In 1998, the World Health Assembly set a goal to reduce the incidence of pertussis to 1 case per 100,000 population. This target has not been achieved, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the epidemic situation with pertussis has become more complicated for Ukraine and many countries. The aim is to determine the epidemiological features of pertussis in Ukraine, taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and martial law. Materials and methods. The incidence of pertussis in Ukraine, its structure by age and territory, and vaccination coverage data were analyzed. A complex of epidemiological methods combined with mathematical statistics was applied. Results and conclusions. After a sharp decrease in the incidence of pertussis in Ukraine against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021-2022, it increased sharply in 2023-2024, which was complicated by martial law. A similar trend was observed in many other countries. The highest incidence rates were observed among children of the first year of life (362.15 per 100 thousand) and aged 1-4 years (114.13). This requires the introduction of revaccination against pertussis in children aged 6 years. During the epidemic upsurge in 2023-2024 the largest proportion of cases occurred in the western regions of Ukraine (73.8% and 53.4%, respectively), which were most involved in wartime migration processes and where vaccination coverage levels were low in previous years. The problem of pertussis losing the character of a vaccine-controlled infection requires further study, in particular, taking into account changes in the biological properties of Bordetella pertussis against the background of long-term vaccine prophylaxis.