Whooping cough vaccine available for Southern Downs women
SOUTHERN Downs parents are being urged not to panic over fears of a whooping cough vaccine shortage.
Chief health officer Dr Jeannette young said there were plenty of vaccines to immunise children and pregnant women against whooping cough.
"Although there is a world-wide shortage of the vaccine, our immunisation programs for children and pregnant women are not experiencing shortfalls," Dr Young said.
"Queensland uses a different brand of the vaccine for the pregnancy program to the one in short supply so there is no issue at all for the state's pregnant women and their babies.
"The Department of Health supplies the pertussis-containing vaccine to the school immunisation program, childhood immunisation program and the whooping cough vaccine for pregnant women program."
Dr Young said the vaccines were free for all women and were provided to general practitioners and hospitals to administer.
"There may be some short-term shortages in the private sector, in circumstances where patients are seeking immunisation outside the children's program or the program that is in place to support pregnant women," she said.
Dr Young encouraged all women in their third trimester to get the vaccination as it had been proved to give effective protection of the disease to newborns. Two booster doses are recommended during childhood to offer protection through to their early teens.
