Pregnancy vaccination coverage in New South Wales (NSW) has declined since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study led by National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) experts has confirmed. 

The research found a decrease of nearly 10 percentage points in pregnancy vaccination coverage for influenza (from 58.8% in 2020 to 49.1% in 2022), and 1.4 percentage points for pertussis (from 79.0% in 2020 to 77.6% in 2022) reported to the NSW Perinatal Data Collection (PDC). 

This study represents the first post-pandemic assessment of pregnancy vaccination coverage using Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) and NSW PDC linked data sources.

Professor Bette Liu, Associate Director, Population Health at NCIRS, emphasised that the ‘stalling pregnancy vaccine uptake that has been seen not just in NSW but also in other jurisdictions is a clear call to action’.  

‘Every year influenza, pertussis and respiratory syncytial virus [RSV] cause a significant number of hospitalisations and occasionally death among infants. 

‘Vaccination against these diseases during pregnancy is strongly recommended to protect infants in their first months of life, when they are most vulnerable.’ 

A new National Immunisation Program (NIP)-funded RSV pregnancy vaccination program was recently announced, meaning three vaccines (influenza, pertussis and RSV) will now be routinely available for pregnant women. 

In this retrospective, population-based cohort study, 555,553 pregnancies were assessed for vaccination coverage between 2017 and 2022. 

‘Linkage of AIR and NSW PDC data sources gives us a unique and more complete picture of pregnancy vaccination practice in NSW – including the vaccination date, pregnancy stage, provider type and the specific vaccines administered,’ said Nicole Sonneveld, Senior Research Officer at NCIRS. ‘We’d like to see these kinds of linkages become routine and conducted nationally.’ 

The study also identified significant under-reporting of pregnancy vaccinations to the AIR compared with the perinatal dataset – despite the Australian Government mandate to report all NIP-funded vaccines that started on 1 July 2021. 

‘Ensuring we maximise the impact of the RSV pregnancy vaccination program in Australia also relies on accurate reporting to the AIR,’ noted Professor Liu. 

‘There’s never been a more important time to ensure our national and jurisdictional data systems are able to collect, link and enable analysis of vaccination coverage data – as this is critical to effectively evaluate and improve our immunisation strategies, particularly for pregnant women and their infants,’ Sonneveld concluded.