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Following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommendations, a temporary vaccination programme will be introduced at the beginning of October 2012.
The recommendation comes as a result of the significant rise in pertussis cases in the UK during 2012.
Health Protection Scotland figures show that 1037 confirmed pertussis cases have been recorded thus far; of those 65 were in infants under 3 months of age. This compares with a total of 61 cases for the same time period of 2011.
The Health Protection Agency figures show that 4791 confirmed pertussis cases have been recorded thus far in 2012, for England and Wales. This compares with 1118 cases for the whole of 2011.
The aim of the programme is to boost the short-term immunity passed on by pregnant women to protect their newborn babies - who are not normally vaccinated until they are 8 weeks of age.
The programme will run initially for six months and will target around 650 000 women a year who are between 28 and 38 weeks pregnant. The women will be offered the vaccine at routine antenatal appointments with a nurse, midwife or GP.
The vaccine being used for the programme is Repevax®, combined diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio.
