April 3 (UPI) -- A new study from Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, or KPVSC, shows receiving the Tdap pertussis booster vaccine during pregnancy reduces risk of pertussis in infants by more than 90 percent.
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a respiratory infection that can be particularly dangerous and potentially life-threatening in infants.
"The strategy of immunizing pregnant women to boost maternal antibody transfer appears to be more effective for protecting young infants against pertussis than are attempts at 'cocooning,' in which mothers and other persons in close contact with newborns are vaccinated after the birth," Dr. Nicola P. Klein, director of KPVSC, said in a press release.
The study showed giving the Tdap pertussis booster vaccine during pregnancy reduced the risk of pertussis in infants in the first two months of life, the critical period before they receive their first childhood reduced diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, acellular pertussis, or DTaP, vaccine, by 91 percent.
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DTaP vaccines are recommended for infants in the United States at 2, 4 and 6 months of age.
Researchers followed 148,981 infants born in Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California from 2006 to 2015. The number of infants whose mothers received the Tdap vaccine during pregnancy increased from less than 1 percent from 2006 to 2008 to roughly 12 percent in 2010 and jumped to 87 percent in 2015.
The significant increase is believed to be due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which in February 2013 recommended that all pregnant women receive the Tdap booster regardless of prior vaccination preferably between 27 and 36 weeks gestation.
"The results of this study demonstrate that maternal Tdap administered during pregnancy provides the best protection against pertussis, which strongly supports ACIP's current recommendation to administer Tdap during each pregnancy," Klein said. "Maternal Tdap administered during pregnancy was highly effective at protecting infants against pertussis prior to their first dose of DTaP. Through the first year of life, maternal Tdap continued to provide protection without interfering with DTaP. It is reassuring that at every level of DTaP exposure, children with maternal Tdap are better protected."
The study was published in Pediatrics.
