Pregnant Mom's Flu Shot Protects Baby

(WebMD)  Pregnant women who get flu shots protect their infants up to age 6 months, a clinical trial shows.

The study, conducted in Bangladesh and led by Mark C. Steinhoff, MD, at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, is the first definitive proof that flu vaccines benefit both mother and infant.

"Our study shows that a newborn's risk of infection can be greatly reduced by vaccinating mom during pregnancy. It's a two-for-one benefit," Steinhoff says in a news release. "Infants under six months have the highest rates of hospitalization from influenza among children in the U.S."

U.S. guidelines advise pregnant women to get flu shots, but only 12 to 13 percent do. Obstetricians have been slow to pass the recommendation on to women, even though most agree that getting the flu during pregnancy is dangerous.

The study enrolled 340 mothers who had not received a flu shot for at least three years. The study showed that vaccinating pregnant women:

Cut infants' risk of getting lab-confirmed flu by at least 63 percent

Cut both infants' and mothers' risk of respiratory disease with fever by one-third

Prevented respiratory disease with fever in 14 infants and seven mothers for every 100 women vaccinated

Prevented one case of lab-confirmed flu for every 16 women vaccinated

A number of factors affected the study, including a shortage of flu tests. But analysis of these factors suggested that, if anything, they led to an underestimation of the true benefit of flu shots for pregnant women.

Infants under age 6 months cannot get a flu shot. And since it takes two shots for full protection, there's a gap during which a child might be vulnerable to the flu.

"Pregnant women should be encouraged to be vaccinated for the flu to protect their infants and themselves," Steinhoff says.

Researchers from the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and from Emory University in Atlanta also contributed to the study. The study appears in the Sept. 17 Online First issue of TheNew England Journal of Medicine.
By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2005-2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved

[4marlene]

More propaganda from big pharma, to suckers who buy into this crock. Flu shots contain thimerasol (mercury) that crosses the placenta into the fetus'' developing brain. This way they can get a head start on developing autism and it can be blamed on ''genetics''.. he was born with it. Wake up people! Pregnant women should not be injected with anything unless they want to find themselves crying later on as they watch their little ones further slip away with each vaccination they get from birth to age 2 years. ''Every child by 2'' is a dangerous proposition, as reading between the lines, it is ''every child damaged by 2''.

[oneworldusa]

I told physicians over 20 years ago that antibiotics weren''t working like they used to. They laughed at me. What does a 17-year old college student know? Apparently more than they did at the time.

[drinuk]

This is more Rubbish Hype from Big Pharma and from Bangladesh too! If they had clean running water as a first step to good health they would not need flu jabs.

Absolute Nonesense !

[tapsettle]

The only reason people need flu shots these days is because the human immune system has become almost redundant. A child complains of earache and we pump them full of antibiotics. An adult feels tired so they take a booster or an adult doesnt feel tired so they take a sedative. If we ever let our immune systems do the job they are supposed to then a mother would pass natural immunity to her baby via her womb and then her milk.