Pregnant women to be vaccinated

Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women across the UK are to be offered a whooping cough vaccine to protect babies from an escalating outbreak of the disease, it was announced here Friday. Very young babies are at the greatest risk of serious complications, health officials said. They added that 10 babies have died in the UK this year. The injection, available from this Monday, should boost a mother's defences, which are then passed onto the baby. The Health officials say there are no safety concerns about the vaccine. There are surges in whooping cough cases every three to four years and the latest outbreak started at the end of 2011. Hooping cough mostly affects infants, who are at highest risk of complications and even death. The earliest signs are similar to a common cold, which then develop into a cough and can even result in pneumonia. Babies may turn blue while coughing due to a lack of oxygen The cough tends to come in short bursts followed by desperate gasps for air (the whooping noise). Adults can be infected - but the infection often goes unrecognized. Women who are between 28 and 38 weeks pregnant are to be offered a combined whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and polio vaccine. About 730,000 women a year could be given the vaccine. Prof David Salisbury, the director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said: "We're boosting the mother to protect the baby. We can't protect babies until they are eight weeks, but their mothers can." The mother's immune system should respond to the injection by producing whooping cough antibodies, which then cross the placenta into the developing child. This should provide enough protection until the baby has its first routine vaccine. Women are being advised to have the vaccine even if they have been vaccinated before and that they should be vaccinated during all subsequent pregnancies.