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Toddlers will now get an additional whooping cough vaccine to protect them against the potentially deadly disease.
An extra whooping cough vaccination for babies comes as a result of work by researchers at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases.
Whooping cough (pertussis) is a highly contagious respiratory infection which causes a severe cough and can be particularly dangerous to babies under a year old. Vaccination is the best way to reduce the risk of whooping cough.
Pregnancy and early infancy are increased risk periods for severe adverse effects of respiratory infections. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (respectfully referred to as First Nations) women and children in Australia bear a disproportionately higher burden of respiratory diseases compared to non-Indigenous women and infants. Influenza vaccines and whooping cough (pertussis) vaccines are recommended and free in every Australian pregnancy to combat these infections.
Antenatal inactivated influenza and pertussis-containing vaccines offer protection against severe respiratory infections for pregnant women and infants <6 months of age. Both vaccines are recommended in pregnancy; however, little is known about temporal or jurisdictional trends and predictors of uptake.
The purpose of this double-blind, randomised, controlled trial is to compare allergic outcomes in children following vaccination with acellular pertussis (aP) antigen (standard of care in Australia) given at 2 months of age versus whole cell pertussis (wP) in the infant vaccine schedule.
The Infectious Disease Implementation Research Team is a multi-disciplinary group researching the best way to implement infectious disease prevention and treatment strategies to improve the wellbeing of children and teenagers.
New collaborative research involving almost 600,000 pregnant mothers has demonstrated a dramatic increase in uptake of the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine after identifying just 22 per cent of WA women had the maternal vaccination between 2012 – 2017.
Immunisation is the most effective way of protecting your child against a range of serious illnesses, including measles, hepatitis B and whooping cough. All vaccines used in Australia undergo stringent testing and ongoing monitoring.
Ruth Peter Thornton Richmond PhD MBBS MRCP(UK) FRACP Co-head, Bacterial Respiratory Infectious Disease Group (BRIDG) Head, Vaccine Trials Group