Benefits of maternal vaccination to prevent pertussis in infants

Abstract

Pertussis, also called whooping cough, is an infectious and preventable pathology that generates important child morbidity and mortality worldwide. There are different biological preparations for its use in infants, while for adolescents and adults is Tdap, (acellular vaccine of purified extracts of Bordetella pertussis (BP), combined with tetanus and diphtheria toxoid) that has been proposed as maternal vaccination (MV). The objective was to identify the benefits of MV in the prevention of childhood pertussis, a review was made in PubMed, Science Direct, EBSCOhosT, OvidSP and Embase databases (years 2008-2016) and an electronic alert system (January-April 2017). 1083 titles were identified and 44 articles were selected. After the MV (administered between 27 and 36 weeks of gestation) the passage of IgG-BP to the fetus is sufficient to generate adequate infant protection, generating two benefits: reducing infant morbidity (number of cases and hospital admissions) and decreasing mortality by pertussis. The MV offers 93% of effectiveness [95%CI: 81-97] and OR: 0.09 [95%CI: 0,03-0,25]. The MV is more favorable in each pregnancy than cocoon strategy, vaccination before pregnancy, before 26 weeks of gestation or in the postpartum. The use of MV is a safe and cost-effectiveness tool to prevent childhood pertussis.