Whooping cough vaccine - "no vax no visit"

[TheWeeWitch]

Have just been chatting to a friend in Australia. She told me that she's having problems with friends and family because she is insisting on a "no pertussis vax no visit" policy for all visitors until her baby has its own vaccination at 6 weeks. Some of them are understandably resistant to the idea.

Is this a thing? With my DCs I had the vaccine in the third trimester (as she will too) and didn't think about it again. I feel bad for her having this awful worry but can't help but think it's all a bit OTT

Totally Ott.

If she had the vaccine while pregnant then it does sound a bit OTT, unless there's been an outbreak in her area recently?

I wonder why she is fixating purely on whooping cough and not the plethora of other communicable diseases out there

I agree cupcake. I'm worried about her. The unintended consequence may be that it annoys people to the point where she'll have no visitors at all and she'll feel isolated, sad and alone.

I'm going to try to very gently bring it up again next time we talk.

Idn where she is but in south aus whooping cough is definitely on the rise, so I guess it's kinda understandable?

Seriously? She's not allowed to protect her baby against a nasty disease? She sounds well informed to me.

just dropping in to say this is a big issue in oz, south especially. lots of reported cases and vax levels lower than here. if she were here i would say ott as risk is tiny. there i dont blame her

Yes I live in a region of Australia where this is currently "a thing". I'm guessing that there's been some initiative from the public health department trying to reduce the incidence of whooping cough. I believe that it is/was on the rise.
I think the no vax no visit thing is ott too, but I suspect that the health department 'marketing ' (for want of a better word ) has tapped into the normal anxieties of pregnant mums. These parents insisting on "no vax no visit" are still likely to take their baby out into areas where there will be unvaccinated or unwell people, eg shops, doctors surgery etc.
Our number of visits to newborn family members has decreased dramatically! We just wait for the parents to bring their baby to visit us when they are ready now, rather than cause them stress.

This type of policy is encouraged by health visitors (MCHNs here).

If I lived in an area where there was an outbreak and I had a tiny baby, I'd be saying exactly the same thing.

Ok so there are obviously outbreaks happening so it seems to make more sense. She's probably been advised to do it by a HP I guess. It just never occurred to me to worry about this. I had my DCs out and about in London on trains and buses when they were small. They could have caught anything and everything!

Sadly she is not being unreasonable. I caught whooping cough as a toddler and it was such a bad experience that I can still remember bits of it! I also ended up with residual problems as a result. This is a horrible diseas and her response is not irational.

I've seen similar recommendations from health care professionals in areas with outbreaks. Colds and flu have nothing on whooping cough in an infant. I've also seen it in areas of rubella outbreaks.

Yes I do worry about the isolation thing too. The spinoff could be new parents who feel either that others don't care, or that there's no family or friends that are 'safe' to call on.
I have recently read some of the public health literature on the topic. It recommended that people who will come into close frequent contact with the child should consider vaccination, but many new parents locally have stretched that to "no vax no visit".

Yes I've heard it's a big deal currently in Aus - there was a thread where British grandparents had a hard time getting whooping cough vaccine for themselves in the UK before flying out to visit newborn grandchild in Aus and almost couldn't go.

Not unreasonable at all. I had whooping cough only 5 years ago and it was horrible and lasted 3 months. It's even worse for a babe.

But I thought the whole point of having the vaccination in pregnancy is that it protects the baby up until the point they have their own vaccination at 8 weeks ish. So why does a visitor need to be vaccinated?

Her call. No vax, no visit until baby has had its own vaccinations sounds 100% reasonable to me. Whooping cough has taken many babies in my extended family, however

Anti-vax idiots are a big problem in Australia - much more so than here - so I completely understand. Good on her for protecting her child.

6 weeks without lots of visitors sounds pretty good actually. And surely some/most adults will have been vaccinated so can come?

When I was a newborn, my auntie visited us with her daughter who had a cough.

My mum had to nurse a 6 week old with whooping cough. It gave me lasting damage.

So I can understand your relatives viewpoint.

I worked for NHS Direct a few years ago, it was an issue back then. Many grandparents phoned us trying to book their vax before setting off to see new grandchildren in Australia. Not such an issue here though.

My friend is a gp in sa and this is indeed a thing, due as others have said to the rise in diseases that can be vaccinated against.
I too am a survivor of whooping cough (I was allergic to the vaccine for that and diphtheria), I nearly died at 8.

Didn't she have the vaccine herself? Is that not enough to protect the baby until they get their own?

I had whooping ough 2 years ago age 43. It was AWFUL - I was ill for 10 weeks or more. No idea how a baby would survive it, there were times i coughed til i passed out.

I think your df is very sensible and if I had a young baby I'd do the same.