Whooping cough (pertussis) is a contagious and very serious respiratory infection that causes a long coughing illness. Pertussis is still common in Australia, and is one of the most challenging of all vaccine-preventable diseases to control. In babies and elderly people, whooping cough can lead to pneumonia and can also be life threatening.  Babies less than six months of age are at greatest risk of severe disease, and dying from whooping cough if infected by Pertussis under six months of age.  The majority of deaths due to whooping cough occur in babies less than six months old.  For these young babies infected by Pertussis, the mortality rate is up to 1 in 125.  Deaths occur due to pneumonia or brain damage. Vaccination of pregnant women remains the best protection for babies agains whooping cough.  Pertussis vaccination in mothers result in transfer of protective antibodies across the placenta to the baby.  There has been much debate around the whooping cough vaccine, and the best time to administer it – in order give the best protection to newborns. Currently newborns do not receive their first vaccine until they are six weeks old.  Therefore the best strategy to protect young babies is vaccination during pregnancy.  Research shows that pertussis vaccination in pregnancy can reduce whooping cough in infants less than 3 months of age by up to 91%. Whooping cough vaccination in third trimester of pregnancy The whooping cough vaccine (dTpa) has been used in pregnant women in the UK and US since 2012, and careful monitoring of this practice (in over 40,000 women) confirms that the vaccine is safe for pregnant women and their unborn babies. Newborn babies are not able to receive their first vaccination for whooping cough until they are six weeks of age, so maternal vaccination during the pregnancy helps to protect them until they can receive their own. Recent studies have in fact shown that the whooping cough vaccination is most effective when it is given to the pregnant mother in the third trimester at around 28 weeks as it takes two weeks to pass the antibodies to the unborn […]