Posted on Wednesday, 6th October 2010 by Marcus Gollan


Attention moms-to-be: Want to cut your newborn’s risk of getting the flu by 41 percent? Then, get your flu shot.

A newly released, 3-year study of over 1169 infants concluded the vaccine has value to both mother and child.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that more than two-thirds of America’s seasonal flu vaccine has been distributed. That is more than 100,000,000 doses.

Public health expert Dr. John Carlo hopes most pregnant women are lining up for it.

“It’s really the best public health measure we have,” said Carlo, a physician with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).

Carlo said it has long been known that newborn babies arrive with some of their mother’s antibodies and disease protection. He finds the new research that mothers vaccinated for flu during pregnancy adds to that protection exciting.

“This is really, really essential because we cannot vaccinate children under the age of 6 months,” Carlo said. “So this is a very vulnerable period for that infant to have severe flu.”

Throughout the last flu season, pregnant women were one of the groups at highest risk of ending up in the hospital with complications of H1N1. That influenza strain is included in the current flu vaccine, adding incentive for pregnant women to get their shots.

“This is a very vulnerable period for both the mother and the baby and whatever we can do to ensure that that’s as safe as possible and free of infectious diseases, we have to do it,” according to Carlo.

He reminds women that flu shots, not the nasal mist, are recommended for pregnant women because shots do not have the live virus.

The study appears in an online edition of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

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