Whooping cough death prompts plea for vaccine

Health authorities have expressed concern at a notable rise in the incidence of whooping cough in babies since the start of the year as well as low vaccination rates among pregnant women.

One infant died as a result of being infected with the disease. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has reported that the number of cases of the highly infectious disease in babies under 12 months has doubled in the first five months of 2016 compared to the corresponding period last year.

A total of 26 cases of the notifiable disease have been recorded in infants to date this year, up from 12 in 2015. The HPSC said 13 of the infants required hospitalisation. Whooping cough is a preventable but highly infectious bacterial disease of the respiratory tract.

The HSE implements a national immunisation programme to provide a whooping cough vaccine to pregnant women. However, it said 20 of the 26 cases had not been vaccinated during pregnancy. A total 17 of the babies infected with whooping cough so far this year were unvaccinated, while six more were not eligible for vaccination because they were under two months.

Since 2012, pregnant women have been recommended to get vaccinated for whooping cough at 27-36 weeks of their pregnancy to protect the newborn from the infections disease in the first months of its life. A HSE survey in 2013 showed only 6.4% of post-natal women had received the vaccine during their pregnancy. The HPSC said there was anecdotal evidence that many mothers are still unaware of the recommendation.