This year, 23 babies have already been admitted to hospital with whooping cough: “Vaccination during pregnancy greatly reduces the risk”

In Flanders, 672 reports of whooping cough were already registered this year, considerably more than in previous years, where on average fewer than 1,000 cases are reported annually. The disease continues to circulate, especially in Antwerp (207 reports) and Flemish Brabant (237 reports).

Almost half of the cases (334) occur in children between 4 and 14 years old, for whom whooping cough is usually harmless. However, they can infect younger brothers or sisters. The disease is most dangerous in newborn babies: they become exhausted by coughing and then no longer drink. Sometimes babies with whooping cough do not cough, but they occasionally stop breathing, which can cause them to turn blue.

Of the 50 children under one year of age in whom whooping cough was reported this year, 23 had to be admitted to hospital, 21 of whom were under six months of age. In at least nine cases the mother had not been vaccinated against whooping cough during pregnancy, in seven babies the mother had been vaccinated and in the remaining five babies the vaccination status could not be checked.

Since about 15 percent of babies are born without maternal vaccination, babies born to unvaccinated mothers are overrepresented in the figures. “It is therefore clear that vaccination during pregnancy reduces the risk of babies contracting whooping cough during their first six months of life and ending up in hospital,” says Joris Moonens, spokesperson for the Department of Healthcare.