To Stop Deadly Pertussis, US CDC Recommends to Vaccinate During Pregnancy

To halt a spike in pertussis cases and deaths in infants, pregnant women now are advised to get a booster shot of the pertussis vaccine in their late second or third trimester. By a 14-1 vote, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently recommended that women now be given a booster dose of Tdap after their 20th week of pregnancy. Vaccination against pertussis cannot start before age two months, but this is the time when the disease is particularly deadly for unprotected infants. Of the 194 U.S. pertussis deaths from 2000 to 2009, 152 were in infants ages one month or less. Twenty-three deaths were in infants ages two to three months. Doctors have been fighting recent outbreaks of whooping cough by giving the Tdap booster vaccine to women as soon as they give birth and also vaccinating everyone else who comes into contact...