New Delhi, May 5: Vaccinating pregnant women against whooping cough can boost the quantity and quality of antibodies in the early life of infants, according to a study. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection characterised by severe coughing spells that can end in a high-pitched "whoop" when inhaling. It is caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. Despite extensive vaccinations, the disease has resurged. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 16 million cases annually and approximately 195,000 deaths in children globally. Researchers at the University of Turku in Finland conducted a randomised, controlled, double-blind, phase 4 trial in Gambia to evaluate the effect of pertussis immunisation in pregnancy. Two types of pertussis vaccines are currently used worldwide: whole-cell vaccines (wPVs) based on killed whole bacteria and acellular vaccines (aPVs) based on one to five purified bacterial antigens. The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, demonstrated that vaccinating women with diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccines in pregnancy was safe and well tolerated and boosted the quantity and quality of pertussis-specific antibodies in infants in early life. Since the highest incidence and mortality of pertussis occur in infants, especially those too young to be vaccinated, immunisation in pregnancy (IP) is recommended to protect infants in early life against pertussis. However, studies have shown that IP can decrease the antibody responses of infants to their primary diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccination. This phenomenon is called "blunting." Blunting of vaccine responses has been observed in IgG-antibody concentrations to different pertussis vaccine antigens, specifically, pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin, and diphtheria toxin. “This study was designed to evaluate the effect of IP on the immunogenicity of primary acellular or whole-cell pertussis vaccines in a West African cohort,” said the researchers led by Qiushui He, a Professor, at the varsity, who found the vaccine to be effective. “Although Tdap-IPV (Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis, polio vaccine) was associated with relative blunting of the immune response to the DTwP (Diphtheria-Tetanus-whole-cell pertussis) primary vaccination series, pertussis-specific antibody quality and memory B-cell responses were nevertheless preserved,” the team added. (IANS)

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