Womens InterestsH1N1 Flu Fatal for 28 Pregnant Women
Health authorities urge H1N1 flu vaccinations for pregnant women, who make up 1 percent of the population but 6 percent of H1N1 deaths. Some women balk, but plenty roll up their sleeves. Flu season lasts until May.
Page 2 of 2Dire Side Effects Decades Ago
Some of the wariness about the new flu shot was spurred by the dire side effects of a previous swine flu vaccine administered decades ago.
In 1976, a vaccine for another type of swine flu seemed to trigger cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which results in muscle weakness and sometimes permanent paralysis. But the CDC says that of several studies evaluating other flu vaccines since 1976, only one showed an association with the syndrome. That study suggested that one person out of 1 million vaccinated persons may be at risk for the syndrome as a result of a flu vaccine.
The CDC and Food and Drug Administration are closely monitoring reactions to the current vaccine. They"re looking into 3,783 adverse events out of 52 million doses, most of which weren"t serious.
The 204 serious reactions included 13 deaths, a rate that isn"t different from seasonal flu vaccines, the CDC says. Health officials are also investigating 10 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome reported after the H1N1 vaccine, but say the deaths don"t suggest that they were due to the vaccine. They also note that about 80 to 160 cases of the syndrome are expected to occur in the United States each week, regardless of vaccination.
"So far, with millions of people having received this vaccine, there has not been an increase in adverse events or any unusual events that would suggest any concern," said Tepper.
Pancer says when he questions women who resist the vaccine he can tell their information "came from the Internet and not from a medical professional or any other reliable source."
Study Suggests Safety
Flu vaccines are safe during all three trimesters of pregnancy, suggested a study published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Researchers at Emory University, Johns Hopkins University and Cincinnati Children"s Hospital Medical Center reviewed past studies of flu vaccination during pregnancy, as well as data about disease and death from flu infection. No study showed an increased risk of complications to the pregnant women or the fetus from inactivated flu vaccination.
But data from previous pandemics and seasonal epidemics confirmed that pregnant women are at increased risk of serious complications from the flu.
"Pregnant women are at increased risk from any version of the flu, and there"s so much more flu right now than there ever has been," said Kevin Ault, a specialist in women"s reproductive health care at both Atlanta"s Grady Hospital and the Emory Clinics.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists--a membership organization for physicians who specialize in women"s reproductive health care--has made a "concerted effort to get more ob-gyns to become vaccinators," says the organization"s president Gerald F. Joseph, Jr. He said few ob-gyns offered preventive vaccinations in the past, but vaccines for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, have opened the door for doctors to be vaccinators.
The organization is surveying its membership to find out how many of their patients were willing to get the H1N1 vaccine.
About half of pregnant women and other adults with health problems that put them at greater risk for complications don"t seek medical attention when they come down with H1N1 swine flu symptoms, according to a CDC survey.
"When we"ve asked flu experts from around the country and around the world what they think will happen in the rest of this flu season, about half think they will have a lot more cases between now and May and about half think we won"t," Frieden said. "The truth is we don"t know. Only time will tell. And that"s why vaccination remains the most important thing you can do to protect yourself and your family from H1N1 influenza."
Diane Loupe is a freelance writer and mother of two in Decatur, Ga. She has an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri, where she was a fellow of the Science Journalism Center.
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