The data reveal another significant decrease in infant vaccination against pertussis: from a 98% immunization coverage in 2018, to a drop to an average immunization coverage of 92% in the last two years. The lowest rate of vaccinators is found in the Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh area where the average scope of pertussis vaccination was only 88%, and in the Darom District with about 90% vaccination, mainly in settlements in the Bedouin diaspora.
In order to increase the immune coverage for pertussis, the Ministry of Health ordered to advance the age of the first pertussis vaccine with drops of milk from 8 weeks to 6 weeks of age, to allow the newborn to create autoantibodies as early as possible. The Ministry of Health responded: “Whooping cough is a particularly dangerous disease for babies up to six months of age that can cause complications and death. The ministry recommends giving a vaccine to women in the third trimester of pregnancy, which allows the pregnant woman to develop antibodies to pertussis at a high level and pass them through the placenta to the fetus in the womb, as well as provide the newborn with protection Until he can receive the vaccine himself.”
Pertussis (pertussis) is caused by infection with the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. It is considered one of the ten deadliest diseases in the world, and at the beginning of the last century it was a major factor in infant mortality, until the introduction of the vaccine which resulted in a significant decrease in morbidity and mortality.
The disease, also known as the “hundred days disease”, due to its long duration which may reach months of coughing, manifests itself in three stages. The first stage lasts about two weeks and is characterized by a runny nose and discharge from the eyes. In the second stage, there is a prolonged paroxysmal cough accompanied by the soil in the face, redness in the white of the eye (conjunctivitis), vomiting and even respiratory arrest in babies. The coughing attacks end with difficulty inhaling air characterized by a kind of whistling. The third stage is characterized by the continuation of the cough for a long period of time.