Whooping cough vaccination for pregnant women extended

The change comes following advice from the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), based on a study which showed that protection for the baby from vaccination is likely to be better if the mum is immunised earlier in pregnancy.

The vaccine was previously aimed at women in weeks 28 to 32 of pregnancy.

Whooping cough is a disease that can cause long bouts of coughing and choking, which can make it hard to breathe. It can be very serious for young children, and even fatal for babies under one year old.

Recently there has been an increase in the number of cases of whooping cough in Northern Ireland, with 79 confirmed in 2015, compared with just 33 in 2014. The total in 2013 was 54, but there aren’t as many as in 2012 which saw 314 cases.