Pregnant people to be offered whooping cough vaccine to protect newborns from severe disease

From 1 July 2025 onwards, pregnant people will be offered the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine as part of the national vaccination programme. Studies show that vaccination during pregnancy is effective in protecting newborns from getting whooping cough. The vaccine is safe for both the mother and the foetus. Having the vaccine will be voluntary.

Adults with whooping cough usually display mild symptoms, but especially for babies under three months of age, the disease can be serious, requiring hospital treatment. The symptoms of whooping cough include intense bouts of coughing that can cause infants to vomit, have difficulty breathing and turn blue, for example. 

In the other Nordic countries, whooping cough vaccination during pregnancy is already part of the national vaccination programme.

Particularly large number of whooping cough cases reported in 2024

Last year, the number of whooping cough cases surged in Finland and across Europe. Finland recorded a total of 2,770 whooping cough cases, the country’s biggest spike in over 30 years. Of all cases, 27 were detected in babies under three months of age, and 91 per cent of them required hospital treatment. However, no deaths were reported.

The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) issued a temporary recommendation in August 2024 that pregnant people be offered the whooping cough vaccine. This significantly reduced the number of whooping cough cases among newborn babies born to mothers who had been vaccinated.

Best time to get vaccinated is between 16 and 32 weeks of pregnancy

In Finland, the whooping cough vaccine is offered to children at 3, 5 and 12 months of age as part of the national vaccination programme. Booster doses are given at the ages of 4 years, 14–15 years and 25 years. Infants under three months of age are at greater risk of getting seriously ill, because they have not been vaccinated against whooping cough yet.

In future, the whooping cough vaccine will be offered to all pregnant women in Finland as part of the national vaccination programme. The best time to get the vaccine is between 16 and 32 weeks of pregnancy for it to be most effective. 

Inquiries:

Mirka-Tuulia Kuoksa, Senior Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 295 163 079, firstname.lastname(at)gov.fi