May I breastfeed after a whooping cough vaccination?
The vaccine against whooping cough is a dead vaccine. This means that the vaccine contains no active bacteria. The body forms antibodies against certain components of the bacterial envelope.Breastfeeding is therefore harmless.
Breast milk contains antibodies of the IgA type. These are antibodies against certain pathogens, which give the breastfed child immunity without it ever coming into contact with the pathogen. This ensures that even newborns and infants who are not yet able to produce antibodies to the same extent as adults are protected against certain diseases.
Costs of vaccination against pertussis
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, is a serious disease. The whooping cough is transmitted by droplet infection. Since the course of the disease can be very bad, especially in children, and can even be fatal, the public health insurance pays for the vaccine against whooping cough in children and adults.
The vaccination reduces the rate of infection in the population and the number of infections is decreasing. The vaccination protects not only the vaccinated but also the non-vaccinated persons (children under 2 months, non-vaccinated adults).
