France urged to tighten whooping cough vaccination net

The High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends that “any person in close contact with a newborn and/or infant under 6 months in a family or professional setting receives a booster, if their last whooping cough vaccine was more than 5 years ago”.

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An infant and his mother at the Ajaccio hospital, in Corsica, January 16, 2024. (PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP)

To better protect babies against the resurgence of whooping cough, all people in close contact with an infant should receive an earlier booster vaccine and pregnant women should be vaccinated much more, the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommended on Monday, July 22.

Whooping cough, a highly contagious viral disease, is often mild but can lead to serious respiratory and neurological complications, sometimes fatal in babies. In a “worrying epidemic context”, HAS therefore recommends that “any person in close contact with a newborn and/or infant under 6 months in a family or professional setting receives a booster, if their last whooping cough vaccination was more than 5 years ago”.

In addition to health and early childhood professionals, this concerns those around the newborn (parents, siblings, grandparents, people in close contact, etc.), unless the mother was vaccinated at least one month before giving birth.


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