Studying maternal, baby outcomes from whooping cough and flu

Influenza and whooping cough are among the most common vaccine preventable diseases in Australia.
However, expectant mothers don’t always vaccinate against these diseases.

A new team of researchers, led by Dr Jane Frawley of the School of Public Health, will examine the effects of seasonal and pandemic influenza and whooping cough during pregnancy, and the outcomes for mothers and babies. 

Using data gathered over 16 years, Dr Frawley and her team will investigate over a million singleton pregnancies among 855,173 mothers in New South Wales.

This will be the largest international cohort study to examine outcomes from maternal whooping cough and the largest Australian study to evaluate seasonal and pandemic influenza outcomes for mothers and their babies.

“Epidemics of whooping cough tend to occur every few years in Australia, and seasonal influenza viruses circulates annually.” 

“While maternal immunisation is available for both of these diseases, uptake is sub-optimal,” Dr Frawley says.

However, with the findings of this research, Dr Frawley is hopeful that this trend can change.

“This new knowledge will help to inform clinical guidelines and vaccine communication efforts,” says Dr Frawley. 

This project brings together researchers from the University of Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney and the University of Newcastle.

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