CAPE TOWN, South Africa — When pregnant women receive the flu vaccine, their risk of developing influenza is halved, as is the risk to their newborns in the first 24 weeks of life, new research shows.
"This is the first randomized controlled study to actually confirm that vaccination is efficacious in pregnant women, and only the second randomized controlled trial to show protection of the infant," said Shabir Madhi, MD, PhD, professor of vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
"Our data support the recent WHO recommendation in terms of prioritizing pregnant women for influenza vaccination, not just for the protection of the mother, but protection of the infant as well," he told Medscape Medical News.
Dr. Madhi presented the results here at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases.
READ FULL ARTICLE why pregnant women are more at risk from medscape.com
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