Preventing Pertussis in the Early Infant: Development and Results of a Prenatal Vaccination Program.

Introduction: Cases of Pertussis increase every year with special morbidity and mortality in early infants. The objective was to evaluate results of a program of vaccination of pregnant women launched in our center in 2013. Methods: This is an observational retrospective study. We reviewed all cases of Pertussis disease in our center (2011-2015) and compared clinical data between two groups of age: Early infants (<3 months of age) and Other Groups (>3 months). We also compared perinatal events in vaccinated versus non vaccinated pregnant women. Results: During the period 2011-2015, 63 cases (9 in Early Infants; 54 Other Groups) were treated. All cases in Early Infants required hospitalization (100% vs. 3,70%; p<0,05) with more days of hospitalization (10,2 days vs. 0,36 days; p<0,05) and need of oxygen (66,67% vs.3,70%; p<0,05). No differences were seen in response to Azithromycin (87,5% vs. 97,91%; p>0.05) nor in incidence in close relatives (44,44% vs. 27,45%; p>0,05). No differences were observed in Perinatal events in vaccinated vs. non vaccinated in terms of duration of pregnancy (279 days vs. 278 days; p>0,05), weight at birth (3290gr vs. 3220gr; p>0,05), admission at NICU (1,58% vs.1,87%; p>0,05) and Apgar test score <7 at 5 minutes (0,27% vs. 0%; p>0,05). Proportion in early infants affected lowered from 40% in 2011 to 3,85% in 2015. Conclusions: Maternal immunization with Tdap vaccine seems to be a good strategy to reduce incidence of pertussis in the offspring. Additional measures such as vaccinating relatives should be considered.

Cross-sectional Study of Growth of Korean Breast Fed Formula Fed Infants from 1 to 3 Postpartum Months / 대한지역사회영양학회지

One-to three -month-old infants(n=252) were compared their growth performance(weight, length, head circumference, chest circumference) by feeding methods in cross-sectional study. There were two groups : breast-fed(BF) and formula-fed groups(FF). The weights of infants at 1, 2, and 3 postpartum month were 4.50+/-.48kg, 5.76+/-0.62kg and 6.67+/-0.68kg, respectively. The weigh of male infants was higher than females. The length were 53.7+/-2.6cm, 57.4+/-3.3cm, 61.1+/-3.1cm at one to three postpartum months, respectively. The length of male infants was higher than females, too. Overall there were no significant differences between feeding methods in weight, length, head and chest circumferences, and monthly weight and length velocity. But 3-month-old formula-fed male infants showed bigger significantly in weight, monthly weight velocity and chest circumference than the breast-feds. By Korean standards, weight-for-height Z-score were distributed from 0 to +2. Not only was there a few malnourished infants but also overnourished were noticed, especially in formula-fed group.