Important News on the Swine Flu and Pregnancy...
First Target for Swine Flu Vaccine Injections: Pregnancy Women!
Swine flu has been hitting pregnant women unusually hard, so they are likely to be among the first group advised to get a new swine flu shot this fall. Pregnant women account for 6 percent of U.S. swine flu deaths since the pandemic began in April, even though they make up just 1 percent of the U.S. population. On Wednesday a federal vaccine advisory panel is meeting to take up the question of who should be first to get swine flu shots when there aren't enough for everyone. At the top of the list are health care workers, who would be crucial to society during a bad pandemic.
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Quoted from the Associated Press:
Pregnant women's risk from swine flu has been a raging topic in Europe, following the contentious suggestion this month by British and Swiss health officials that women should consider delaying pregnancy if they can.
Most health officials call that advice unwarranted, but have agreed that the health risks are significant. In a recent report, World Health Organization experts found that pregnant women appear to be "at increased risk for severe disease, potentially resulting in spontaneous abortion and/or death, especially during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy."
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More on this...
CDC Panel to Recommend Who Should Get Swine Flu Shot
With the first trials of a vaccine against the new H1N1 swine flu set to begin shortly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will convene a panel of experts Wednesday to recommend a priority list of candidates for the vaccine. Those recommendations will assume that a safe and effective vaccine will be available by October in sufficient quantity to start a mass vaccination program in the United States. If all goes well, the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine should be known by late August or September, federal officials said.
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