Healthcare staff are being urged to recommend and offer the vaccine which protects against pertussis to their pregnand patients amidst a surge in cases.
Pregnant women are being urged to avail of the whooping cough vaccine to protect their newborn babies against a surge of the potentially life-threatening illness. A total of 514 cases of pertussis (whooping cough) have been recorded in Ireland so far this year. This compares to just 18 cases notified to health authorities in all of 2023. Those most at risk from the life-threatening illness are infants under six months. Among cases recorded this year in infants aged five months or younger, around two-thirds led to hospitalisation.
Currently no data is available on the level of uptake of the vaccine among pregnant women in Ireland. However, it is thought that around 84 per cent of infants under one month and 74 per cent of those under six months with pertussis this year were born to unvaccinated mothers. The Tdap vaccine which protects against pertussis is recommended between 16 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. This safeguards the baby against the infection for the first two months of life.
The child can then receive further protection through the 6-in1 vaccine which is given at two, four and six months of age. A booster dose is recommended between four and five years of age, while an additional low-dose shot is also offered between the ages of 11 and 14.
Dr Scott Walkin, GP and ICGP clinical lead for antimicrobial resistance and infection control, told Irish Medical Times that there is a general acceptance among pregnant women on the benefits of the maternal vaccine.
“I don’t find much difficulty in persuading people to take the pertussis vaccine day-to-day because the purpose of it is to protect the baby,” he said.
“When vaccines are for the benefit of the baby, there seems to be acceptance that if people are offered it, they will take it.”
The sharp rise in cases here mirrors a surge in pertussis cases across Europe. Between January and March this year, 32,000 cases were reported across the EU/EEA region, 7,000 more than in the whole of 2023.
The region recorded 19 deaths from the disease the first three months of this year, with most of those occurring in infants under six months. Babies with pertussis often require hospitalisation for complications including coughing spasms and feeding difficulties. Among hospitalised infants, over half required intensive care. Around one-in-five develop pneumonia, while seizures can occur in three per cent of these cases. Up to four per cent of these severe cases can lead to death, according to international research.
Maternal Tdap vaccination reduces infant pertussis risk by 78 per cent and hospitalisations by 91 per cent. “The real call to action here is for GPs, practice nurses, midwives, obstetricians, and public health nurses to recommend and (where possible, i.e. in general practice) to also offer Tdap vaccination,” Dr Walkin added “Recommend and offer has been shown to be more effective than recommending alone.”
Source: Irish Medical Times
