#babies #suffering #whooping #cough #hospitalized #year #Flanders
Of the 50 children under the age of one who contracted whooping cough this year, 23 required hospitalization, 21 of whom were under six months old. In at least nine cases, the mother had not been vaccinated against the disease during pregnancy. In seven babies, the mother had been vaccinated and in the remaining five babies, vaccination status could not be verified.
“It is therefore obvious that vaccination during pregnancy reduces the risk of babies contracting whooping cough during their first six months of life and ending up in hospital,” explains Joris Moonens, from the Flemish agency in charge health care.
As part of their vaccination schedule, babies receive their first whooping cough injection at eight weeks. It is followed by boosters at twelve and sixteen weeks, fifteen months, six and fourteen years. “A baby can only acquire good immunity after four to six months and several doses of vaccine. To fill this period, it is therefore preferable for a pregnant woman to be vaccinated between the 24th and 32nd weeks of pregnancy. In this way, it transmits its antibodies to the baby, who is thus better protected in the first months of his life,” adds Mr. Moonens.
Adults should also receive a booster shot every ten years. The vaccine against this acute bacterial infectious disease of the respiratory tract is free.
