While whooping cough has been on the rise since January, vaccination of pregnant women is the most effective way to protect infants, according to the HAS.
- Faced with the resurgence of whooping cough in France since the beginning of 2024, the High Authority of Health recommends that pregnant women get vaccinated to protect infants before they can be vaccinated by their own vaccination.
- It also recommends a booster vaccination for anyone in close contact with a baby under 6 months old in a family or professional setting, “if their last whooping cough vaccination was more than 5 years ago”.
- In addition to health and early childhood professionals, this concerns those around the newborn (parents, siblings, grandparents, etc.).
Faced with the current resurgence of whooping cough in France, the High Authority of Health (HAS) has just published new vaccination recommendations to curb the risk of an epidemic. In a communicated published on July 22, it recommends that pregnant women get vaccinated and recommends a reminder to people who may be in contact with babies under 6 months to avoid contamination.
At least 17 deaths caused by whooping cough in 2024
While whooping cough, a highly contagious viral infection, is often benign, it can cause serious respiratory and neurological complications, sometimes fatal in babies. However, since the beginning of 2024, the number of infections has jumped and at least 17 deaths, including 12 of infants aged 2 months or less, have been recorded in the country, a figure already higher than that observed during the last epidemic peak in 2017.
The HAS, contacted by the Ministry of Health, recalls that the vaccination of pregnant women remains “the most effective way to protect the newborn and infant before they can be protected is through their own vaccination […] through transplacental transfer of maternal antibodies”. A measurement “safe and effective”successfully implemented for twelve years in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, which ensures “protection of infants against severe forms and deaths of more than 90%”according to the public authority.
The infant’s entourage also concerned by the vaccination booster
In this “worrying epidemic context”she also recommends that “any person in close contact with a newborn and/or infant under 6 months in a family or professional setting receives a booster, if their last whooping cough vaccination was more than 5 years ago”. Studies suggest that “vaccine efficacy would fade rapidly from 5 years after the last dose, becoming insufficient to guarantee protection against infection”according to the HAS.
In addition to health and early childhood professionals, this concerns, in a strategy of “cocooning” vaccination, the newborn’s entourage (parents, siblings, grandparents, other people likely to have close and lasting contact with the infant in its first six months), unless the mother was vaccinated during her pregnancy at least one month before giving birth. The HAS has published on its website a summary table detailed recommendations.
Note that the two vaccines indicated for adults, Boostrixtetra and Repevax, which combine diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and poliomyelitis (dTcaP), “are well tolerated”with mild side effects.