Flu and whooping cough vaccines in pregnancy help keep babies out of hospital

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-01-09 03:00

International

Photo by CDC on Unsplash. Story by Rachel McDonald, Australian Science Media Centre

Getting an influenza or whooping cough / diphtheria / tetanus vaccine during pregnancy helps prevent the baby from being hospitalised with the flu or whooping cough in their first six months, according to Italian research. The team used health records to identify 53,448 mothers who received the Tdap combined vaccine (for whooping cough / diphtheria / tetanus) during pregnancy, and 5,347 who received a flu shot during pregnancy. They then compared the rates of hospitalisation or emergency department visits among babies of vaccinated mums with babies whose mothers didn't receive a vaccine in pregnancy. They say the flu shot was linked to a 69.7% reduced risk of flu-related hospitalisation or ED visit, and the Tdap vaccine was linked to an 88.6% reduced risk of whooping cough hospitalisation / ED visit in the babies' first six months of life.

News release

From: JAMA

Maternal Vaccine Receipt and Infant Hospital and Emergency Visits for Influenza and Pertussis

About The Study: This study found that maternal influenza and tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccinations were associated with reduced influenza- and pertussis-related hospitalization or emergency department visits in infants younger than 6 months. Given the low vaccination coverage, it is crucial to implement maternal vaccination campaigns to enhance infant health outcomes.

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Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Milano-Bicocca Mila, Italy

Funder: This work was supported by PNRR 2022-NAZ-0524—PRIN 2022 under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1—Call 1409/22: COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Infections: the Clinical and Epidemiological Changes in the Pediatric Population (the CARICE project); CUP: H53D23007460001.

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