Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 May;129(3):245-51.
doi: 10.1177/003335491412900306.

Protecting newborns by immunizing family members in a hospital-based vaccine clinic: a successful Tdap cocooning program during the 2010 California pertussis epidemic

Elizabeth Rosenblum  1 , Sarah McBane  2 , Wendy Wang  3 , Mark Sawyer  4
Affiliations

Protecting newborns by immunizing family members in a hospital-based vaccine clinic: a successful Tdap cocooning program during the 2010 California pertussis epidemic

Elizabeth Rosenblum et al. Public Health Rep. 2014 May.

Abstract

Objective: Infants are at greatest risk for mortality from pertussis infection. Since 2005, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended a cocooning strategy of vaccinating all close contacts of infants with tetanus, diptheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine to reduce the risk of transmitting pertussis. Difficulties in establishing a complete cocoon have been reported in the literature. We determined whether families of newborns could be fully immunized against pertussis, thereby providing a complete cocoon of protection.

Methods: Tdap vaccine was offered during visiting hours to contacts aged 7 years and older and to postpartum patients who had not received Tdap vaccine during pregnancy. We then conducted retrospective phone interviews with randomly selected mothers (or other family members) to assess vaccination rates. We compared household vaccination rates during intervention and control periods and the demographic factors associated with Tdap vaccination of all members within the households.

Results: During the intervention period, 243 postpartum patients and 1,287 other family members of newborns were immunized, with 84.8% of all family members receiving Tdap vaccination. Seventy-six percent of households reported a complete cocoon. In the control group, 52.2% of all family members received Tdap vaccination, and 29.3% of households had a complete cocoon. In the control group, fewer family members completed Tdap vaccination in the larger households than in the smaller households (p=0.008).

Conclusion: A cocooning strategy can be successfully implemented, such that the majority of newborns leave the hospital with their families fully immunized against pertussis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Households reporting all members immunized (full cocoon) with Tdap vaccine in households with an infant delivered during (intervention group) or prior to (control group) the Family Tdap Clinic: UCSD, 2010
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of percentages of household members immunized with Tdap vaccine in households with an infant delivered during (intervention group) or prior to (control group) the Family Tdap Clinic: UCSD, 2010
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Summary of notifiable diseases—United States, 2010 [published erratum appears in MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2012;61 (29):562] MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2012;59(53):1–111. - PubMed
    1. Winter K, Harriman K, Zipprich J, Schecter R, Talarico J, Watt J, et al. California pertussis epidemic, 2010. J Pediatr. 2012;161:1091–6. - PubMed
    1. Pertussis epidemic—Washington, 2012. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2012;61(28):517–22. - PubMed
    1. Vitek CR, Pascual FB, Baughman AL, Murphy TV. Increase in deaths from pertussis among young infants in the United States in the 1990s. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2003;22:628–34. - PubMed
    1. Cortese MM, Baughman AL, Zhang R, Srivastava PU, Wallace GS. Pertussis hospitalizations among infants in the United States, 1993 to 2004. Pediatrics. 2008;121:484–92. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances