Whooping cough pregnancy jabs

Doctors weren't able to diagnose the whooping cough that killed the daughter of Chelsea Thompson and Todd Haynes until two days after she died.

The couple spoke to ITV News' Medical Editor Lawrence McGinty.

Whooping cough is an infection of the lining of the airways. It mainly affects the windpipe and the two airways that branch off from it to the lungs.

Daybreak's Health Editor Dr Hilary Jones explains;

Pregnant women are to be vaccinated against whooping cough, after the biggest outbreak of the illness for two decades claimed the lives of 10 babies. Daybreak's Nick Dixon reports.

The vaccine from pregnant mothers will be administered through routine antenatal appointments with nurses, midwives or GPs.

The £10 million programme, which has been set up on a temporary basis, has been endorsed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and a number of royal colleges.

From Monday, women across the UK who are between 28 and 38 weeks pregnant will be offered the vaccination.

The drug which is to be administered, called Repevax, has raised safety fears, coming with the advice: "The use of this combined vaccine is not recommended in pregnancy".

But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) - the independent panel of vaccine experts which advises the Government - said that it has "no concerns" about the safety of the vaccine, which protects against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus and polio.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Government's principal medical adviser, said:

Pregnant women are to be vaccinated against whooping cough from Monday following the biggest outbreak of the illness for two decades.

Nine children under the age of three months have died in England this year, along with one in Northern Ireland, as result of the infectious disease.

There have been 4,791 confirmed cases in England and Wales between January and August - four times more than the total figure for 2011, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said.

Newborn babies cannot receive the jab until they are two months old.

But vaccinating their mothers before they are born will boost their immunity until they reach the age they can get the injection themselves, health officials have announced.