Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, May 5: Vaccinating pregnant women against whooping cough significantly enhances the protection of newborns in their early months, a new study has revealed, even though it may mildly blunt the infant’s response to later vaccinations.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a contagious bacterial infection caused by Bordetella pertussis, marked by severe coughing fits and a distinctive "whooping" sound. Despite global immunisation efforts, the disease continues to persist, with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting around 16 million cases and nearly 195,000 child deaths annually.

A team from the University of Turku in Finland conducted a phase 4, double-blind, randomised controlled trial in The Gambia to assess the effects of maternal vaccination on newborn immunity. The results, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, confirmed that administering the diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine during pregnancy was both safe and effective.

The research showed that maternal vaccination led to a higher concentration and improved quality of pertussis-specific antibodies in infants — a critical defense during the early months before babies can receive their own shots.

However, scientists also noted a phenomenon called "blunting," where infants born to vaccinated mothers showed slightly reduced immune responses to their own early doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-whole-cell pertussis (DTwP) vaccine.

“While the maternal vaccine did slightly blunt the infant’s response to their own pertussis shots, the overall antibody quality and the memory B-cell response were preserved,” said lead researcher Professor Qiushui He.

The findings underscore the importance of maternal immunisation, particularly in low-resource settings with high disease burden, and offer reassurance that it does not compromise long-term immunity in infants.

Health experts continue to recommend immunising pregnant women to bridge the gap until babies can be directly vaccinated.