Achi news desk-
Public Health Scotland is set to publish the latest weekly statistics on pertussis infections – better known as whooping cough – later today.
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It comes after data revealed Scotland is in the grip of its biggest outbreak of whooping cough in more than a decade, with 2,232 laboratory-confirmed cases up to May 13.
This compares to 73 known infections during the whole of 2023.
In England, five babies – all under three months old – died as a result of whooping cough between January and March this year.
In Scotland, no deaths from whooping cough have been recorded since 2015, but the current cases are expected to worsen over the coming months.
Whooping cough is spread by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis, which is highly contagious.
As a disease, it is more contagious than Covid and just as contagious as measles.
A decline in vaccine uptake as well as a sharp fall in exposure to the disease during the pandemic has been blamed for the current spike in infections sweeping the UK.
Pregnant women are encouraged to come forward to be vaccinated as this is the best way to protect newborns against pertussis until they are old enough to receive the jab, which is given in three rounds at eight, 12 and 16 weeks, with reinforcement between the ages. from three and four.
Getting the vaccine while pregnant means that mothers can pass on antibodies to their developing baby in the womb.
PHS does not collect data on vaccination uptake during pregnancy in the way it does for childhood immunisations, but the Herald asked each health board in Scotland for their latest figures.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway and Highland has yet to respond and NHS Shetland said the data can only be obtained by submitting a freedom of information request, which takes up to 20 working days.
NHS Lothian declined to comment, saying the figures “are not routinely published by PHS” and “we would not publish unverified management data”.
A spokesperson added that its figures may not be comparable to other areas because “the data may not be collected in the same way by each board”.
Of those who responded, uptake of the pertussis vaccination during pregnancy in 2023/24 was 73% in Tayside and 73.3% in Grampian.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran had the highest coverage of the mainland boards at 87.2%.
In the islands, 95.4% in NHS Orkney took up the service and 82% for the Western Isles.
For the rest of the health boards, the number who received the vaccine was 77.9% in Lanarkshire, 80.8% in the Borders, 82.6% in Forth Valley, 77% in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and 86% in Fife.
In England, only 60% on average get the pertussis vaccine during pregnancy, but it is less than 37% in London.
The figures come days after Dr Sam Ghebrehewet, head of immunization and vaccination at Public Health Scotland (PHS), warned that whooping cough infections would continue to increase until the autumn.
He said: “It’s likely to get worse.
“The cycles we’ve seen over the last 10 years are usually that it starts in the first [quarter of] the calendar year – January, February, March.
“It’s getting higher and higher and it doesn’t peak until the third quarter, so I think it has a long way to go as far as we understand from previous years.
“I think it’s going to increase rather than decrease at the moment.”
Other experts – including Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia – have suggested that the UK is on the brink of its worst wave of pertussis in 40 years.
He said: “It used to be much more common in the last century until the vaccine was introduced.
“However, it looks like we could see more cases this current year than we’ve seen in any of the last 40 years.”
Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said it was a “serious epidemic”.
He added: “Unfortunately, a significant proportion of pregnant women have not been receiving the vaccine and so we are now seeing serious cases among the babies of these women.
“Although the reasons for this are certainly multiple and complex, it is our duty for these mothers and their children to ensure that they are offered timely vaccination and the information and explanation, from someone they know. understand it and trust it, to enable them to do the right thing. determination and avoid this terrible disease which is completely preventable by being immunized.”
