Whooping cough vaccination scheme recommended for continuation

The Department of Health has received a recommendation that its whooping cough vaccination programme for pregnant women should continue for a further five years.

This advice was issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) based on new data on vaccine effectiveness and safety published recently by Public Health England and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Originally launched in October 2012 on a temporary basis, the vaccination programme was introduced in response to a national whooping cough outbreak that led to several infant deaths.

The new research, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, shows it has been highly effective, with babies born to women who had been vaccinated experiencing a 91 percent reduced risk of becoming ill with whooping cough in their first weeks of life.

Public Health England's head of immunisation Dr Mary Ramsay said: "We welcome JCVI's advice that the vaccination programme for pregnant women is continued, particularly while whooping cough continues to circulate at elevated levels."

Also known as pertussis, whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the lungs and airways. It is a cyclical disease, with the number of cases peaking every three to four years.