Pregnant women and parents of newborn babies will be given a free whooping cough vaccination amid a recent surge in the number of cases of the disease.
In Wyndham, the number of people infected with whooping cough rose 32 per cent, from 79 in 2013 to 105 in 2014. Across the state, the number of cases jumped 58 per cent, from 2926 in 2013 to 4615 in 2014.
In a bid to reduce the number of children infected with the disease, the state government has vowed to introduce free vaccinations for expectant parents and parents of newborns.
It is not known when the free vaccinations will begin.
The government pledge follows a warning to parents from Victoria’s chief health officer, Rosemary Lester, earlier this month.
Dr Lester warned that whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection.
The disease affects air passages and breathing, causing severe coughing spasms and potentially leading to hemorrhages, convulsions, pneumonia, encephalitis or death. One in every 200 babies who contracts the infection dies.
“Complete and timely immunisation of children remains the most important measure to control pertussis,” Dr Lester said.
“Infants aged less than six months are most susceptible to the severe complications of pertussis.”
National Centre for Immunisation and Research of Vaccine Preventable Diseases senior research fellow Dr Helen Quinn believes that immunisation rates are not to blame for the rise in cases, but rather the protection provided by the current vaccine is wearing off.
