Pregnant women and swine flu
Pregnant women appear to be at greater risk of complications -- and death -- from the swine flu than the general population, according to a study released this morning. The women who died were otherwise healthy.
The women were diagnosed quickly, but didn't get prompt treatment, write the authors of the study, done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and appearing in the online edition of the journal The Lancet.
Doctors might have been reluctant to treat pregnant women with antiviral drugs, because "as with most drugs, information about the safety and effectiveness of these anti-influenza drugs during pregnant is scarce.
"In view of the expected effects of pandemic H1N1 influenza virus on the pregnant women, the benefits of treatment with these drugs are likely to outweigh potential risks to the fetus."
Pregnant women are always concerned about what they put in their bodies -- I could think of little else from the minute the test turned pink -- so it's no surprise they'd be worried about taking a medication that hasn't been tested in pregnant women.
But the CDC recommends that pregnant patients get antiviral drugs as soon as possible after the onset of flu symptoms. When treated within 48 hours, none of the pregnant women in the study died.
Researchers found that during the first two months of the pandemic, there were 45 U.S. deaths from H1N1, six of them (13 percent) pregnant women. It is unknown how many of the deaths since then have been pregnant women. The CDC says more than 300 people have died from the swine flu since it appeared in mid-April.
Pregnant women are expected to be a high-priority group should a swine flu vaccination campaign be put in place. Traditionally, this group has been among the least likely to get seasonal flu vaccine, with just 14 percent getting shots in 2004. Pregnant women have said concerns about the safety of the flu shot have kept them from getting vaccinated, according to the Lancet study.
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