Tdap vaccination in pregnancy to protect the infant from whooping cough
A Tdap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough) given to a pregnant person so that her baby has some protection against whooping cough in the first months of life. A US study of babies younger than 2 months estimated that Tdap given in the third trimester of pregnancy was 77.7% effective against whooping cough in the baby.
Also called Tdap
- Intervention
- In this atlas
Overview
Technical summary
The vaccine is given to the mother and the outcome is measured in the infant, so the claim uses an infant context and states the mother's exposure. The evidence is a US case-control evaluation (Clinical Infectious Diseases 2017) of infants younger than 2 months, read as a PubMed abstract only; observational design, so it estimates effectiveness without randomisation. MedlinePlus names Tdap as one of the two US whooping cough vaccines. The abstract says Tdap was recommended in 2012 for women during each pregnancy.
About this intervention
- Type
- Medicine
- Mechanism
- Not reported
Claims and evidence
Context Infants younger than 2 months in six US states, born to mothers who were or were not vaccinated with Tdap in pregnancy (case-control evaluation)
- Recipient
- Newborn
- Population
- Infants younger than 2 months with pertussis (cases, cough onset 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014) and hospital-matched controls chosen from birth certificates, from six US Emerging Infections Program states. Mothers counted as vaccinated if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery; the abstract reports 240 cases and 535 controls.
- Care setting
- Population-based case-control evaluation in six states with mother interviews and provider-verified immunisation records.
- Geography
- Six US Emerging Infections Program states (the abstract does not name them)
- Life stage
- Infants younger than 2 months
- Gestational age
- Not reported
- Postnatal age
- Not reported
- Follow-up
- Not applicable (case-control design)
Eligibility: 2 inclusion criteria; 1 exclusion criterion
- Included
- Infants younger than 2 months with pertussis (cases)
- Hospital-matched controls selected by birth certificate
- Excluded
- Not stated in the source that was read
A US case-control evaluation compared 240 infants younger than 2 months who had pertussis, with cough onset from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014 in six Emerging Infections Program states, with 535 hospital-matched controls. Mothers were counted as vaccinated during pregnancy if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery. In the third trimester, 17 case mothers (7.1%) and 90 control mothers (16.8%) had received Tdap. The multivariable vaccine effectiveness for Tdap given in the third trimester was 77.7% (95% confidence interval 48.3% to 90.4%), and 90.5% (95% confidence interval 65.2% to 97.4%) against cases that were hospitalised.
Applies to Newborn- Infants younger than 2 months with pertussis (cases, cough onset 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014) and hospital-matched controls chosen from birth certificates, from six US Emerging Infections Program states. Mothers counted as vaccinated if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery; the abstract reports 240 cases and 535 controls.
- Population-based case-control evaluation in six states with mother interviews and provider-verified immunisation records.
- Six US Emerging Infections Program states (the abstract does not name them)
- Infants younger than 2 months
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
- Certainty method
- Not assessed
- Limitations
- Only the PubMed abstract was read; the full text was not. This is an observational case-control design in which effectiveness is estimated as (1 minus the odds ratio) times 100, so it cannot show cause the way a randomised trial can. The PMC copy is not in the Open Access subset and was not read. The authors conclude that vaccination during pregnancy is an effective way to protect infants in the early months of life.
- Last checked
- 2026-10-15
- Next evidence check due
- Not scheduled
Sources and citations (11)
-
- Locator
- Abstract, METHODS, sentence 1, fragment 1 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, METHODS, sentence 1, fragment 2 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, METHODS, sentence 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, METHODS, sentence 5, fragment 1 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, METHODS, sentence 6
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, RESULTS, sentence 1, fragment 1 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, RESULTS, sentence 1, fragment 2 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, RESULTS, sentence 2, fragment 1 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, RESULTS, sentence 2, fragment 2 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract.
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, BACKGROUND, sentence 2, fragment 1 of 2
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract (context for the claim).
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
-
- Locator
- Abstract, CONCLUSIONS, sentence 1
- How it applies
- PubMed abstract (context for the claim).
- Retrieved
- Source effective date
- Not reported
- Source state
- Current
- Snapshot hash
d2a5a5de3b3041bbc154d88ea9d170d3ed2c87d99d919173844b89e7410461c6- Reuse basis
- PubMed record fetched through NCBI E-utilities. Only the hash of the bytes is kept, because publisher copyright may apply to the abstract (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disclaimer/). Short factual quotations under 25 words, with the citation.
Clinical links
Each link reports what one cited claim says about one population. "Evaluated for" means studied, not shown to work. These links do not show that anything is effective or right for you.
-
Claim, not a settled fact Case-control evaluation: effectiveness against pertussis in infants younger than 2 months: Whooping cough (pertussis) in young infants
Applies to Newborn- Infants younger than 2 months with pertussis (cases, cough onset 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014) and hospital-matched controls chosen from birth certificates, from six US Emerging Infections Program states. Mothers counted as vaccinated if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery; the abstract reports 240 cases and 535 controls.
- Population-based case-control evaluation in six states with mother interviews and provider-verified immunisation records.
- Six US Emerging Infections Program states (the abstract does not name them)
- Infants younger than 2 months
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
A US case-control evaluation compared 240 infants younger than 2 months who had pertussis, with cough onset from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014 in six Emerging Infections Program states, with 535 hospital-matched controls. Mothers were counted as vaccinated during pregnancy if they received Tdap at least 14 days before delivery. In the third trimester, 17 case mothers (7.1%) and 90 control mothers (16.8%) had received Tdap. The multivariable vaccine effectiveness for Tdap given in the third trimester was 77.7% (95% confidence interval 48.3% to 90.4%), and 90.5% (95% confidence interval 65.2% to 97.4%) against cases that were hospitalised.Limitations. Only the PubMed abstract was read; the full text was not. This is an observational case-control design in which effectiveness is estimated as (1 minus the odds ratio) times 100, so it cannot show cause the way a randomised trial can. The PMC copy is not in the Open Access subset and was not read. The authors conclude that vaccination during pregnancy is an effective way to protect infants in the early months of life.
Record details
- Record id
maternal:maternal-tdap-vaccination- Content hash
048c94191379e5f9f4ffca407778cf0f35bbd14b53090a59c46c78f12bae3217