The total number of infectious disease cases reported in the country last year, excluding COVID-19 and syphilis, reached 168-thousand-586, up about 60-thousand or 54-point-five percent from the previous year.

The figures, released Thursday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(KCDC) in its 2024 report on infectious diseases, showed that the number of reported whooping cough cases surged from 292 in 2023 to 48-thousand last year.
 
Whooping cough is an acute respiratory disease that is mainly transmitted through droplets when an infected person sneezes, similar to COVID-19.

A KCDC official explained that respiratory diseases like whooping cough, which were controlled by the quarantine system during the COVID-19 pandemic, seem to have increased after distancing measures were lifted.

Meanwhile, reported cases of scarlet fever rose to more than six-thousand-600 last year as compared with only 815 cases in 2023, while cases of chickenpox also showed a significant rise.

The KCDC stressed the importance of early reporting of infectious diseases, starting with medical institutions, to support the nation’s public health monitoring system and protect communities.