Some areas are experiencing considerably worse rates of infection (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
Experts are urging pregnant women to get vaccinated against whooping cough after a rise in potentially deadly cases among babies.
Health officials yesterday confirmed five babies died of the disease, also known as pertussis or the ‘100-day cough’, died in the first three months of this year.
That period alone saw triple the number of confirmed cases as the whole of last year.
Cases have continued to rise sharply, more than doubling from 555 in January to 1,319 in March.
Some areas are experiencing considerably more severe outbreaks, according to Metro.co.uk analysis of the most recent data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The infection rate in the worst-affected part of the country (Wales) was nearly four times that of the least-affected area (north-west England) in the third week of April.
Wales reported by far the highest rate of cases (2.6 per 100,000 people) followed by south-west England (1.5) and south-east England (1.4).
Most parts of the country have stayed roughly on par with the average, though the North West and West Midlands have consistently reported lower rates (0.7 and 0.9 in the most recent week).
The figure in Wales is more than double that of the average across England & Wales, while the North West rate is almost half the average.
Comparable data for Scotland and Northern Ireland were not available.
Cases appear to be continuing to rise sharply: the number of reported cases was 2201 in the first three weeks of April, compared to 1,319 confirmed cases in March.
While not all cases reported by doctors are later confirmed in labs, the two figures do not differ in a ‘significant’ way, the UKHSA says.
The surge has been linked to a steep post-Covid drop in the number of pregnant women accepting a new vaccine that protects their babies against the disease.
Children have been inoculated against whooping cough for decades as part of routine jabs which they can be given from the age of two months.
But a new vaccine introduced in 2012 protects newborns by vaccinating the mother during pregnancy.
Less than 60% of pregnant women accepted this vaccine between October and December 2023, compared to around 76% during the same period in 2017.
This drop is the ‘biggest issue’ behind the recent surge, says Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, consultant paediatrician and chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that under-vaccination is putting ‘the most vulnerable – those who are too young to have been vaccinated – at greatest risk’.
He said the ‘only thing we can actually do’ about rising cases is to ensure higher vaccination rates.
He added: ‘But very importantly, for this very vulnerable group, those who are too young to be vaccinated, is the vaccination rates in pregnant women.
‘Very worryingly, those have fallen from a peak of about 75% of women being vaccinated during pregnancy to under 60% today, and that’s what puts these very young infants at particular risk.’
He said for most of the last decade there have not been many cases of whooping cough ‘because we’re all protected by the high vaccination rates’.
But as soon as vaccination rates start to fall,’”we see cases rising, the same as the situation with the measles outbreak’.
He warned: ‘The troubling thing is that if we continue to have high rates of spread and low rates of vaccination, there will be more babies severely affected and sadly there will be more deaths’.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.