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Ten percent of pregnant women received flu vaccine from 2005-2014
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Findings published in Pediatrics showed that only 10% of pregnant women surveyed over 9 years had received the influenza vaccine. In addition, newborns were found to have a reduced risk for influenza when their mothers were vaccinated.
“Only 10% of women in this cohort spanning 9 influenza seasons reported influenza immunization,” Julia H. Shakib, DO, MPH, in the department of pediatrics at the University of Utah, and colleagues wrote. “But the proportion of pregnant women reporting influenza immunization increased significantly after the H1N1 pandemic, with a more pronounced recent increase, reaching a high of 52% in the 2013 to 2014 influenza season.
“Nationally, prepandemic H1N1 National Health Interview Survey seasonal influenza coverage estimates for 2008 to 2009 were only 11%.”
Due to a lack of immune response, immunizing newborns during their first 6 months has not provided them with influenza protection, the researchers wrote. Several prospective studies, however, have shown that pregnant women who received the vaccine can protect their children from getting influenza. The most recent American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists committee opinion stated that for influenza, “maternal immunity is the only effective strategy in newborns.”
To determine the rate and efficacy of vaccination in pregnant women, the researchers assessed 245,386 women who delivered children between 2005 and 2014. They analyzed rates for influenza-like illness, laboratory-confirmed influenza and influenza hospitalizations among infants.
The researchers found that 10% of the women reported receiving the influenza vaccine. The vaccination rate was only 2.2% before the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, then grew to 21% afterward (P < .001). For every 1,000 newborns with at least one influenza-like illness, 1.34 were born to women who reported being immunized during pregnancy vs. 3.7 born to women not immunized (P < .001). Among every 1,000 newborns with laboratory-confirmed influenza, 0.84 were born to women who were vaccinated, while 2.83 were born to those reporting no immunization (P < .001). Among immunized mothers, there were 0.13 infants per 1,000 hospitalized with influenza, while 0.66 per 1,000 were born to unimmunized women (P = .005).
Newborns of women who reported influenza immunization had risk reductions of 64% for influenza-like illness, 70% for laboratory-confirmed influenza, and 81% for influenza hospitalizations in their first 6 months, the researchers wrote.
“Our results support the need to incentivize system-level efforts to improve influenza immunization coverage rates in pregnant women, particularly in those with government insurance or no insurance,” Shakib and colleagues wrote. “Protecting young infants from influenza through maternal immunization is a public health priority.” – by Will Offit
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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