Shortly after the end of the year we meet again a story that we would not like to hear, the death of a newborn baby. And what is sadder, for a preventable disease. Yesterday another baby has died in Madrid due to whooping cough, a disease more typical of the last century than of this era. With this, they add already five cases in Spain in 2015, four of which happened since September. Hopefully it is the last.
As in the other cases, it is the contagion of a newborn baby, this time of one month and ten days, in a window period in which the baby is unprotected, since until the first two months the first one cannot be applied vaccine dose.
A disease that advances
It should be the opposite, but unfortunately we return to live with a disease that should be eradicated, or about to be. According to the National Center of Epidemiology (CNE), to date of this year have accumulated more than 7,200 cases, which constitutes triple over the same period in the previous five years.
Between 2000 and 2006, there was an average of one death per year. In the period between 2007 and 2010 the figure increased to 3.7. Between 2007 and 2010, the number rose to 5.5, while from 2011 to 2014, the number rose to 5.5.
Unprotected pregnant women?
Because babies cannot receive the vaccine until two months, it has been seen that a good solution to reduce cases of pertussis is to vaccinate pregnant women who would pass the antibodies through the placenta and thus cover the period more vulnerable from birth until the baby can receive the vaccine, but unfortunately he has reacted late.
The deaths of the babies have begun to produce alarm, the health authorities began to recommend the vaccination of pregnant women and the autonomous communities were reacted on account of drops, deciding to include vaccination for pregnant women in the last weeks of pregnancy.
But the truth is that it has taken a while to react and the pregnant women have been unprotected for several months in which there were deaths of newborns that could have been avoided. Even those who wanted to get vaccinated on their own did not get the vaccine.
Communities that vaccinate against pertussis
Nowadays, the autonomous communities that vaccinate pregnant women are: Asturias, Canary Islands, Catalonia, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Navarra, Basque Country, Andalusia, Aragon, Cantabria and the Balearic Islands.
La Rioja has started last Tuesday and Madrid has started vaccinating all pregnant women yesterday in its 36th week of gestation. Also to those with more than 28 weeks gestation with high-risk pregnancy and indication of their gynecologist.
Castilla-La Mancha will start vaccinating on December 9, Galicia on December 21, Murcia announced its incorporation for February 2016 and Castilla y León still has no date, but will make a decision this month.
Yesterday, just the same day they start vaccinating pregnant women in the community of Madrid another baby dies, A death that could have been avoided if it had reacted two months earlier?
