Vaccination in Pregnancy against Pertussis: A Consensus Statement on Behalf of the Global Pertussis Initiative

Bahaa Abu-Raya; Kevin Forsyth; Scott A Halperin; Kirsten Maertens; Christine E Jones; Ulrich Heininger; Daniela Hozbor; Carl Heinz Wirsing von König; Amar J Chitkara; Rudzani Muloiwa; Tina Q Tan

doi:10.3390/vaccines10121990

Vaccination in Pregnancy against Pertussis: A Consensus Statement on Behalf of the Global Pertussis Initiative

Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Nov 23;10(12):1990. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10121990.

Authors

Bahaa Abu-Raya^{1

2}, Kevin Forsyth³, Scott A Halperin⁴, Kirsten Maertens⁵, Christine E Jones^{6

7}, Ulrich Heininger⁸, Daniela Hozbor⁹, Carl Heinz Wirsing von König¹⁰, Amar J Chitkara¹¹, Rudzani Muloiwa¹², Tina Q Tan¹³

Affiliations

¹ BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4H4, Canada.
² Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6H 3V4, Canada.
³ College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia.
⁴ Canadian Center for Vaccinology, Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre, and Nova Scotia Health Authority, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.
⁵ Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium.
⁶ Faculty of Medicine and Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
⁷ NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.
⁸ Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Basel Children's Hospital, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
⁹ Instituto de Biotecnología y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CONICET, La Plata 1900, Argentina.
¹⁰ Independent Researcher, 47805 Krefeld, Germany.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics, Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi 110017, India.
¹² Department of Paediatrics and Child health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7935, South Africa.
¹³ Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60208, USA.

Abstract

Infants are at high risk for severe morbidity and mortality from pertussis disease during early infancy. Vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy has emerged as the ideal strategy to protect infants during these early, vulnerable, first months of life. On 30 November and 1 December 2021, the Global Pertussis Initiative held a meeting that aimed to discuss and review the most up-to-date scientific literature supporting vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy and outstanding scientific questions. Herein, we review the current and historically published literature and summarize the findings as consensus statements on vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy on behalf of the Global Pertussis Initiative.

Keywords: Global Pertussis Initiative; immunity; pertussis; pregnancy; protection; vaccination.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The Global Pertussis Initiative is supported by Sanofi. It was established in 2001 to evaluate the ongoing pertussis challenges across the globe and recommend appropriate pertussis control strategies. Sanofi continues to fund this important initiative to provide a forum for scientific-, clinical-, and policy-based discussions. The views and opinions expressed in this publication, which could include the usage of Sanofi products that are inconsistent with the current labeling or licensed indication, are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the position of Sanofi. BA was funded by Michael Smith Health Research BC.