Whooping cough jabs for childcare workers will help protect babies, says Dutch Council

The best way to protect babies up to 6 months old from contracting whooping cough is to make the vaccine against the disease available for any worker who comes in contact with newborns, the Dutch Health Council said on Monday. This would help prevent the highly contagious disease from spreading to babies, who can suffer more serious symptoms which ultimately kill about 1 percent of infected babies younger than a year old.

“Despite the fact that whooping cough vaccination has been offered to all pregnant women since 2019, there is still a group of children who are insufficiently protected during the first months of life,” the Council said.

Whooping cough is also known as pertussis, as it is caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. The name is derived from the “whoop” sound accompanying a gasp of air which briefly breaks up intense fits of coughing.

Babies might not initially develop a cough, and may instead stop breathing for brief moments known as apnea. About two-thirds of babies are affected with the more serious symptom, leading them to turn blue, and show signs of being unable to breathe. A fifth of babies develop pneumonia, about 2 percent develop convulsions, and roughly 1 out of every 150 infected babies will suffer from encephalopathy.

“In 2017, the Health Council advised offering whooping cough vaccination to employees who come into contact with children under 6 months, to protect the children. Vaccination of the children themselves only offers full protection after several repetitions, and therefore after several months,” the Council stated.

Even though all pregnant women can receive a whooping cough vaccination, this is not always effective for the first few months of a baby’s life. “Not all pregnant women are vaccinated and sometimes insufficient antibodies are transferred, for example if the child is born premature,” the Council argued. When a mother has received a vaccine shot, the child only gets their own first dose after two months.

At least six babies have died from whooping cough in the Netherlands over the past 12 months. So far, nearly 17,000 cases of infection have been recorded in the country this year. “In healthy adults, whooping cough is usually mild or without symptoms, but babies can become very seriously ill,” the Council noted.

Teenagers and adults may find that the disease begins with a dry cough and runny nose, about a week or two later it develops into the more intense coughing, whooping, and vomiting. This can last up to two months before another two-month period of gradual improvement, though they can also develop pneumonia.