Whooping cough vaccine for kids

[Frontpaw]

MIL thinks that we ought to get boosters for children against whooping cough. Not surwe if this is DM related or not.

Does anyone know what the current thinking/medical advice is on this?

[Theas18]

Current thinking- baby imms if complete protect you well until early 20's.

THe reason o immunise is that babies /small kids get terribly ill with pertussis. Big people don't - they cough and are miserable for 40 days .

Current imms is to protect babies via mums immunity because the babies who die of pertussis, on the whole are younger than 8 weeks, therefore too young to immunise in their own right.

I suspect they will change things after this, but then there will be many mumsnet threads about " why should I get my teen boosted when it's for the good of herd immunity" etc

[bruffin]

Currently its 2, 3 and 4 months
followed by booster at 3.4 months
and then again at about 15

There has been talk about bringing the 15 year old one forward and it was announced today that pregnant women should be given a booster.

[meditrina]

What they also should be doing is offering a catch up programme to those born in the 1970s (when vax rates collapsed).

Anyone know if this is on the cards?

[Goldmandra]

My 15 year old had it at Easter as did I.

It is a horrible, horrible experience and very frightening in the first few weeks. DH even dialled 999 at one point because my airway was so restricted. Six months on and I still have a cough which bothers me a lot. So does DD1.

I don't know how old your children are, OP, but DD1 had all her vaccinations on time and still caught it. DD2 is 9 and had hers more recently which, I assume, is why she didn't catch it. I would certainly take up a booster and wish DD1 had been offered one before her immunity waned.

A lot of Googling and speaking to the HPA when they rang me to ask about my recovery leads me to believe that the vaccination only lasts about 10 years.

I hope they do offer it to people born in the 70s. it may not be a killer when you're older but it is awfully debilitating.