Open AccessSEVERE PERTUSSIS IN INFANTS
Author(s) -
A. Ruth Foxwell,
Peter McIntyre,
Helen Quinn,
Katrina Roper,
Mark Clements
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the pediatric infectious disease journal/the pediatric infectious disease journal
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1532-0987
pISSN - 0891-3668
DOI - 10.1097/inf.0b013e3181f43906
Subject(s) - medicine , pediatrics , pertussis vaccine , population , whooping cough , vaccination , immunization , environmental health , immunology , antigen
We estimated the potential benefits of advancing the first dose of pertussis vaccine for infants from 8 to 6 weeks of age, using Australian national disease databases. Infants had notification rates 3-fold greater than the general population and accounted for 52% of recorded hospitalizations. Infants 1 and 2 months of age had notification rates 3.5 times (95% CI: 2.7-4.5) higher than infants 3 to 11 months of age. Estimation of acceleration of the vaccine to 6 weeks of age reduced average notifications, hospitalizations, and hospital bed-days by 8%, 9%, and 12%, respectively, with larger reductions in an epidemic year.