Whooping cough vaccinations offered to pregnant women

The Department of Health has announced plans to provide whooping cough vaccinations for pregnant women in order to better protect newborns.

Due to begin next week, the scheme will help to bolster the short-term immunity passed on by mothers to their newborn offspring, who typically cannot receive immunisation until they are two months old.

The programme comes in response to a rise in whooping cough cases and deaths amongst young infants, with Health Protection Agency figures showing that 302 cases have been observed among those aged below 12 weeks during the first eight months of 2012.

This is more than double the 115 cases reported during the same period of 2011, while among all ages, the number of cases stands at 4,791, over four times more than the whole of last year.

Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies said: "It's vital that babies are protected from the day they are born – that's why we are offering the vaccine to all pregnant women."

Whooping cough is also known as pertussis and results in severe coughing fits that can lead to severe complications and death among the very young.