Pregnant women urged to take whooping cough jab

There are renewed calls for pregnant women to take up vaccinations for whooping cough after a reported rise in cases.

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), external, there were 72 suspected cases reported in the East of England for the week ending 12 May, with 22 of them in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

All pregnant women are eligible for the whooping cough vaccine after 16 weeks. The bacterial illness can be life-threatening for newborn babies.

UKVAS said uptake had fallen across the country in both the pregnant women and infant vaccination programmes.