The role of disease surveillance in maternal pertussis vaccination programmes in Europe: lessons for the future
19 affiliations
- 1UK Health Security Agency, London, UK
- 2Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
- 3Santé Publique France, Paris, France
- 4Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens, Paris, France
- 5National Reference Center for Whooping Cough and Other Bordetella Infections, Paris, France
- 6European Reference Laboratory for Public Health on Diphtheria and Pertussis, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
- 7Working Group Vaccines and Vaccination Policies – SItI (Italian Scientific Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health), Rome, Italy
- 8Board of the Italian Vaccination Calendar for Life, Rome, Italy
- 9Adult Immunization Board, Rome, Italy
- 10Department of Clinical Microbiology, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron Campus, Barcelona, Spain
- 11Microbiology Research Group, Institut de Recerca Vall d’Hebron (VHIR), Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron Campus, Barcelona, Spain
- 12CIBER de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- 13Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
- 14Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
- 15National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands
- 16Department of General Paediatric and Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Necker-Enfants Malades University Hospital, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
- 17Immunization Unit, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany
- 18St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
- 19City St George’s, University of London, London, UK
Abstract
Maternal vaccination is a powerful tool for protecting the health of mothers and infants but the role of surveillance systems in supporting vaccination programme design and implementation is underexplored. This paper considers how surveillance and post-implementation monitoring have helped to shape the timing and rationale for introduction of, and progressive change in, maternal pertussis vaccination in seven high-income European nations (England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain). We show that differences in surveillance system design and in programme decision-making have had important implications for both timing of introduction and programme structure in each country, but that contingency has been a key factor especially where countries introduced vaccination as an outbreak response measure. To help better position surveillance and monitoring systems to provide a basis for decision-making on future maternal vaccination programmes, national and pan-European decision-makers should support greater harmonisation of case definitions and laboratory confirmation approaches; improve capture of maternal vaccination uptake and factors influencing overall trends and known and emerging inequities; invest in consistent, attitudinal data collection to better understand trends and the role of patient perceptions in influencing uptake; and support increased uptake through training of healthcare professionals to help them communicate confidently with pregnant women. This article contributes to the Lancet Regional Health–Europe series “The Future of Maternal Vaccination in Europe”.
Related
- Real-world effectiveness of maternal genetically inactivated acellular pertussis vaccination in protecting infants under three months of age: a case-control study using concurrent community-based and test-negative controls
- Pertussis and vaccination coverage in children under one year of age and in pregnant women: a challenge that persists Coqueluche e cobertura vacinal em menores de um ano e gestantes: ainda um desafio
- Neonatal T cell maternal microchimerism is common and associates with early pregnancy SARS2 vaccination
- Enrollment in participatory surveillance programs and influenza vaccination uptake: A systematic review protocol
- WingShape-Warn: A Morphology-Driven Early-Warning Pipeline for Mosquito-Borne Disease Surveillance
BibTeX
@article{ismail2026role,
title = {{The role of disease surveillance in maternal pertussis vaccination programmes in Europe: lessons for the future}},
author = {Sharif A. Ismail and Katie Farnes and Tara Patel and Fatima Aït El Belghiti and Sylvain Brisse and Colin N.J. Campbell and Helen Campbell and Giovanni Gabutti and Juan José González-López and Aapo Knuutila and Nicoline van der Maas and Hester de Melker and Alba Mir-Cros and Hanna Nohynek and Julie Toubiana and Ole Wichmann and Shamez N. Ladhani and Asma Khalil and Gayatri Amirthalingam},
journal = {The Lancet Regional Health - Europe},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101902},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101902},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The role of disease surveillance in maternal pertussis vaccination programmes in Europe: lessons for the future
AU - Sharif A. Ismail
AU - Katie Farnes
AU - Tara Patel
AU - Fatima Aït El Belghiti
AU - Sylvain Brisse
AU - Colin N.J. Campbell
AU - Helen Campbell
AU - Giovanni Gabutti
AU - Juan José González-López
AU - Aapo Knuutila
AU - Nicoline van der Maas
AU - Hester de Melker
AU - Alba Mir-Cros
AU - Hanna Nohynek
AU - Julie Toubiana
AU - Ole Wichmann
AU - Shamez N. Ladhani
AU - Asma Khalil
AU - Gayatri Amirthalingam
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
DO - 10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101902
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101902
AB - Maternal vaccination is a powerful tool for protecting the health of mothers and infants but the role of surveillance systems in supporting vaccination programme design and implementation is underexplored. This paper considers how surveillance and post-implementation monitoring have helped to shape the timing and rationale for introduction of, and progressive change in, maternal pertussis vaccination in seven high-income European nations (England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain). We show that differences in surveillance system design and in programme decision-making have had important implications for both timing of introduction and programme structure in each country, but that contingency has been a key factor especially where countries introduced vaccination as an outbreak response measure. To help better position surveillance and monitoring systems to provide a basis for decision-making on future maternal vaccination programmes, national and pan-European decision-makers should support greater harmonisation of case definitions and laboratory confirmation approaches; improve capture of maternal vaccination uptake and factors influencing overall trends and known and emerging inequities; invest in consistent, attitudinal data collection to better understand trends and the role of patient perceptions in influencing uptake; and support increased uptake through training of healthcare professionals to help them communicate confidently with pregnant women. This article contributes to the Lancet Regional Health–Europe series “The Future of Maternal Vaccination in Europe”.
SN - 2666-7762
ER -