The latest figures on pertussis vaccination uptake in pregnant women seem to show an uptick in the numbers having the jab.
Quarterly data for April to June this year show a steady increase throughout the spring months. It is the first quarterly increase in coverage since the end of 2019/20, public health officials from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.
It follows rising rates of pertussis and a national campaign to encourage vaccination, and more recently GP practices have been asked to lead on a national pertussis vaccination catch up campaign as part of this year’s contract.
In all, 10 babies have now died in the recent outbreak which started in November 2023. At the end of August this year there had been 13,248 laboratory confirmed cases of pertussis in 2024.
The updated figures show that by June, maternal pertussis vaccine uptake had reached 60.9% and the average for three-month period was up 1.5 percentage points on the same time the previous year.
But the figures hide large regional variation in the figures, the UKHSA report noted.
Between ICBs, coverage ranged from 23.2% in North Central London to 79.8% in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, the data showed.
And despite the rising coverage this quarter the figures are still 8.1% down compared with the peak uptake seen in 2016/17.
Across London as a whole, maternal pertussis vaccination has increased to 41.3% but it is far below the 60.9% documented in December 2019, the report said.
‘Overall, monthly prenatal pertussis vaccine coverage for the first quarter of 2024/25 went from 58.9% in April, to 59.0% in May and to 60.9% in June,’ the report said noting a steady but small upward trend.
Work is also happening to improve data capture in vaccination done in maternity units, which may also lead to better uptake, the report said.
But this will not be visible in uptake reports until figures start to come through for women delivering after September 2024.
‘If coverage, and ultimately the impact of the programme itself, is to be accurately monitored, it is essential that GPs and practice nurses continue to ensure that vaccination and date of delivery are recorded in the patient’s GP record,’ the report said.
‘In areas that have commissioned maternity units to offer pertussis vaccines in pregnancy, it is important that providers ensure doses of vaccines given to individual women are also communicated to the woman’s GP where these are not captured in automated systems.
‘Maternity units not offering pertussis vaccines to pregnant women should continue to discuss its importance, make use of available resources and signpost women to their GP to receive the vaccine.’
