Mums who have whooping cough jab ‘reduce their baby’s risk of deadly condition by 90%’

WOMEN who have the whooping cough vaccine while pregnant reduce their baby's chance of contracting the deadly condition by up to 90 per cent, new research has revealed.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a respiratory infection caused by bacteria called Bordetella pertussus.

It can affect anyone at any age but can be life-threatening in babies and young children.

Women who have the vaccination reduced their baby's risk of contracting the condition by 91 per cent in their first two months of life and 69 per cent in their first year.

The vaccine became available on the NHS to pregnant women in 2012 after a whooping cough epidemic hit the country, as well as other parts of the globe.

There were more than 9,300 cases of whopping cough reported in the UK alone that year - more than 10 times more than the number of cases recorded in previous years.

The outbreak prompted the health service to act.

The NHS now recommends women get the whooping couch vaccine anywhere between 20 and 32 weeks pregnant.

Since the vaccine was offered to mums-to-be in 2012, the number of pregnant women getting the vaccine has reached 56 per cent.

Now, new findings from the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in the US, has determined that the uptake in immunisation is more effective in protecting kids from the condition.

Senior author Nicola Klein, said: "The strategy of immunising pregnant women to boost maternal antibody transfer appears to be more effective for protecting young infants against pertussis than are attempts at 'cocooning,' in which mothers and other persons in close contact with newborns are vaccinated after the birth."

Without whooping cough vaccination during pregnancy, antibodies passed on from mum to baby start to decline by six weeks of age and become undetectable by about four months of age, when it is recommended kids are vaccinated, the study found.

Dr Klein added: "Maternal Tdap [whooping cough vaccine] administered during pregnancy was highly effective at protecting infants against pertussis prior to their first dose of DTaP [vaccines given to kids].

"Through the first year of life, maternal Tdap continued to provide protection without interfering with DTaP.

"It is reassuring that at every level of DTaP exposure, children with maternal Tdap are better protected."

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