Cases of highly infectious whooping cough have increased by 25% across the region, posing a serious risk to babies and young infants.
Yet despite the rise, thousands of women are still not being vaccinated, with 40% of pregnant women not taking the protection it offers to their new born child.
A regional campaign has been launched to raise awareness of the risks and promote uptake of the vaccine among pregnant women.
Whooping cough – known medically as pertussis – is an infection which can create serious breathing difficulties, particularly in babies and young children. It can lead to major health complications such as brain damage and pneumonia and can be fatal.
In the south region, there were 1141 cases of whooping cough in 2014, increasing by over 25% to 1432 in 2015. In 2012, 14 babies died in England and Wales following a whooping cough infection.
New born and young babies are particularly vulnerable, but a highly effective vaccine is routinely available to pregnant women, who then pass the resistance to their unborn child, protecting the baby from birth until they are old enough to receive their childhood immunisations at around three months old.
The vaccine is given at a GP practice or in maternity units at the point of the foetal abnormality scan, from 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Ideally it should be given before 32 weeks, but it can still be given right up to the point of labour, but with reduced effectiveness.
The national average coverage of eligible pregnant women is around 60%. In the B&NES area, there is a vaccine coverage of 70.8%.
During the winter flu season, pregnant women should also receive the flu vaccination, which can be given at the same time as whooping cough.
Dr Nigel Acheson, Regional Medical Director, said: “People often think of whooping cough as an illness from days gone by – but it is a real threat to babies and young children right now and can lead to pneumonia, brain damage and even death.
“The number of infections increased by 25% across the South region in 2015, but despite the risk, on average just 60% of women receive the vaccination, meaning many are putting their baby at risk.
“As we are also approaching the winter flu season, I also urge pregnant women to receive their free flu vaccination, which they can have at the same time as whooping cough.
“This way they will protect themselves and their baby from both potentially fatal illnesses.”
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Sunday 11th September, 2016 at 01:08“Pregnant women urged to protect their babies from infectious whooping cough”
If you are concerned about the health of your baby-ignore the advise of the people who are telling you to take a vaccine that has never been studied in pregnant women. In addition to that the FDA issued a statement back in 2013 about the Pertussis vaccine:
-Meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tom Harkins Global Communication Center Atlanta, Georgia December 11-12, 2013.
FDA issued a warning regarding this crucial finding. Furthermore, the 2013 meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors at the CDC revealed additional alarming data that pertussis variants (PRN negative strains) currently circulating in the USA acquired a selective advantage to infect those who are up to date for their DTap boosters (see appendix) for the CDC document Item#3), meaning that people who are up to date are more likely to be infected and thus contagious than people who are not vaccinated.
-Study titled: “Acellular Pertussis vaccines protect against disease but fail to prevent infection and transmission in a nonhuman primate model,”
used infant baboons to test the hypothesis that “current acellular pertussis vaccines fail to prevent colonization and transmission” of B. Pertussis. (there is no vaccine for Bordetella Pertussis bacteria) http://www(dot)pnas (dot) org/content/111/2/787.
Lead author Tod Merkel did comment to the New York Times that when exposed to B. Pertussis after recently getting vaccinated, you could be an asymptomatic carrier and infect others, saying: “When you’re newly vaccinated, you are an asymptomatic carrier, which is good for you, but not for the population.” According to Tod Merkel of the FDA, it has now become clear that the vaccine does almost nothing to prevent the spread of whooping cough. Although it does seem to prevent about 80 percent of people from showing symptoms of the disease, it does not prevent them from catching it or spreading it.
-Study: Whooping cough resurgence due to vaccinated people not knowing they’re infectious? clinicalnews(dot)org/2015/06/24/study-whooping-cough-resurgence-due-to-vaccinated-people-not-knowing-theyre-infectious/comment-page-1/. From study/article:
“a detailed epidemiological model of whooping cough transmission to conclude that acellular vaccines may well have contributed to — even exacerbated — the recent pertussis outbreak by allowing infected individuals without symptoms to unknowingly spread pertussis multiple times in their lifetimes.
‘There could be millions of people out there with just a minor cough or no cough spreading this potentially fatal disease without knowing it,’ said Althouse. ‘The public health community should act now to better assess the true burden of pertussis infection.’ What’s worse, their model shows that if the disease can be spread through vaccinated, asymptomatic individuals essentially undetected.
There have been half a dozen cases of babies contracting pertussis and of course the blame is put on the unvaccinated. When the stories are vetted thoroughly it is revealed that the Mom or someone else in the family had recently been vaccinated. This is usually how the child is infected and the studies plus the statement by the FDA confirms it.