Question:
With more than 2700 cases of Whooping cough reported across England so far in 2024, more than 3 times the amount recorded in the whole of last year, what are Wokingham Borough Council doing to highlight the importance of vaccinations and to make sure our residents know how to access their jabs?
Minutes:
Question:
With more than 2700 cases of Whooping cough reported across England so far in 2024, more than 3 times the amount recorded in the whole of last year, what are Wokingham Borough Council doing to highlight the importance of vaccinations and to make sure our residents know how to access their jabs?
Answer
As you know whooping cough, is a contagious bacterial infection that causes a characteristic cough. It is most serious for very young babies.It is a statutory notifiable disease, that peaks cyclically every 3 to 5 years. Unfortunately, like many Tory election messages, there has been much misinformation about this peak, in the media.
The whooping cough vaccine provides high levels of protection against severe disease. Despite the increase, the number of notifications in Wokingham Borough has remained in the low single digits each week, accounting for approximately 1% of the cases in the South East. My wife, a local GP, has seen one confirmed case.
The whooping cough vaccine is given as part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule delivered at primary care. There is good uptake of these vaccines in Wokingham Borough, consistently above the national target for the first dose, of 95%.
It is also important for pregnant women to get vaccinated against whooping cough, as they pass immunity onto their babies. The WBC Public Health Team continuously to closely monitor immunisation uptake rates in association with partners in the Health Protection and Resilience Partnership Board.
National immunisation programmes are commissioned by NHS England. The local authority public health team promotes awareness and encourages uptake of these programmes, but without frightening people.
In tandem with the recent national childhood immunisations campaign, the WBC Public Health Team have issued communication messages through our networks, such as residents’ and school newsletters, as well as in customer-facing settings such as children’s centres and libraries. The health visiting and school nursing service, commissioned by the public health team, also promote all childhood vaccinations as they deliver their services in the community. The Director of Public Health has written directly to all GPs in the Borough to ask for their support in delivering vaccinations for those due or catching up.
Supplementary Question:
I think it is a shame that the Member there had to turn it into a political question when it was genuinely a question about what the Council is doing as a Borough to represent its residents and the best thing for their care. So, it is a shame that you had to turn it into that.
David, I am pleased to hear of the progress that is being made to encourage these vaccinations, and as you said it is most important for pregnant women. How can you, and will you be moving this forward reporting back to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee about how you are progressing with this is we have any further cases?
Supplementary Answer:
We will certainly be reporting back as to how we are progressing and so on, and certainly it is those two important groups, the children, and the pregnant women who we will focus on. As you might know, certainly our uptake with pregnant women is above the national average. It is still quite low, it is still only 70%, but the national average is below 60%, so we are better, but we are not good enough. We will go on showing and increasing this, if at all possible.