Baby dies of whooping cough after mother not vaccinated while pregnant

A baby whose mother was not vaccinated against whooping cough while pregnant has died after contracting the infection, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.

The death, which occurred between January and June 2025, is the first fatal case of whooping cough in the UK this year.

It follows government warnings about low vaccine uptake, including among children, as well as an increase in vaccine hesitancy.

None of the main childhood vaccines in England reached the uptake target of 95% last year, recent data from the health agency showed.

Whooping cough is a bacterial infection of the lungs and airways which can be fatal, particularly for babies. Eleven infants died of the illness in 2024.

Pregnant women, as well as infants and young children, are advised to get vaccinated against it. The uptake among pregnant women currently stands at 72.6%.

The UKHSA says vaccination during pregnancy, introduced in late 2012, is “key to passively protecting babies” in their first weeks of life. Infants are first offered a jab which protects against whooping cough at eight weeks old.

Thirty-three infants have died of the illness since 2013 – 27 of whom had mothers who had not received the jab in pregnancy.

The UKHSA’s deputy director Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam said the case was a reminder of “how severe whooping cough can be for very young babies”.

She continued: “Vaccination is the best defence against whooping cough and it is vital that pregnant women and young infants receive their vaccines at the right time, ideally between 20 and 32 weeks.”

The health agency and ministers have recently warned of declining vaccine uptake among children.

Last year, the share of five-year-olds who had received one dose of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine remained at its lowest level since 2010/11, at 91.9%.

The uptake rate for both doses – 83.7% – was at its lowest since 2009/10.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 95% of children should receive vaccine doses to achieve herd immunity.

Poor uptake of the MMR vaccine was blamed for a rise in measles cases earlier this year. In July, a child died at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after contracting the illness.

The government this week said all young children in the UK would be offered a free chickenpox vaccine by the NHS from January 2026.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock told the BBC that the government was concerned about vaccine uptake and hesitancy, which he said had increased after the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said campaigns explaining “the benefits of getting vaccinated and the fact that this is 100% safe” would be brought forward as the government sought to “win this battle against the conspiracy theorists”.