Pregnant women hit hard by swine flu - July 29, 2009
All Nature’s pandemic flu coverage is collected on our news special page. These regular updates on The Great Beyond round up the latest from other news sources around the globe.
Pregnant women who get swine flu are at an increased risk of serious illness and death. Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have analysed the first 34 cases of pandemic H1N1 infections in pregnant women in the US, including 6 deaths, and found that expecting mothers were four times more likely to be hospitalized than other people with the virus.
Given the increased risks, lead author Denise Jamieson, who reported the findings today in the Lancet, urged health officials to leapfrog ill moms-to-be to the front of the queue to receive anti-flu medications such as Tamiflu. “Some clinicians hesitate treating pregnant women with antiviral medications because of concerns for the developing fetus, but this is the wrong approach,” she said. (Wall Street Journal) The right approach, the authors write, is to administer the drugs within 48 hours of illness onset.
Although pregnant women had more complications once struck with the pandemic virus, there was no indication that they were more prone to infection. “There is no reason to delay pregnancy or to be overly concerned,” said Jamieson. “We do not have evidence that pregnant women have increased susceptibility or are more likely to acquire influenza.” (Reuters)
