Influenza and Whooping Cough: Vaccination

(asked on 29th July 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the national coverages rates of (1) influenza, and (2) pertussis, vaccination among pregnant women, and what steps they are taking to improve coverage rates for all maternal immunisations, ahead of delivering a new vaccination programme for the respiratory syncytial virus.


Answered by
Baroness Merron Portrait
Baroness Merron
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 5th August 2024

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) routinely monitors and reviews the vaccination coverage of all the routine immunisation programmes in England. Flu vaccine uptake for pregnant women for the 2023/24 flu season was 31.2%. Pertussis vaccine uptake for pregnant women for 2024, from January to April, was 59.1%.

To improve coverage rates for all maternal immunisations, the UKHSA provides public facing information, including information leaflets in multiple languages and accessible formats. The UKHSA also provides training slides and information resources for healthcare professionals.

Ahead of delivering a new vaccination programme for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the UKHSA hosted two RSV webinars for healthcare professionals: the older person RSV vaccine programme; and the maternal RSV programme. Resources are also available for the RSV programme on the Health Publications Website.

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