Swine Flu (H1N1) Vaccinations For Pregnant Women?
In our society we are very concerned about the health of pregnant women. We generally tend to not want to use them as experimental subjects because of the general fragility of the child in the womb. However we are in a unique situation in that we have a new virus that is especially dangerous to young children and children in the womb.
The question that expecting mothers and fathers are asking themselves now is should we vaccinate the mother against potential infection by the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu?
Although the swine flu is new to the US as of 2009 the process used to create the vaccine that has been rushed into production to help protect against it is well timed tested. It is the same process is used to create vaccines for the seasonal flu that most people in the US receive each year. The vaccine that is, not the flu.
In fact, the vaccine is remarkably effective against the seasonal flu. And it is also very safe for most people. The question this year is how the vaccine for H1N1 will be different, if at all, from the seasonal flu vaccine. So far, evidence shows that people who tolerate seasonal flu vaccine also tolerate the H1N1 vaccine very well.
One additional wrinkle will be that people will need to get two vaccines, not just one. Vaccine for H1N1 and seasonal flu have not been combined so it will be two separate shots, perhaps two separate visits at two different locations. This is obviously an inconvenience but should be relatively small compared to the consequences of getting infected with swine flu.
So if you are pregnant you really should consider taking the extra step in talking with your physician about getting the swine flu vaccine. If you are in a situation where you are around a lot of children, or are in a medical setting, that leans you more towards getting the vaccine over not. If you work around a lot of children, and you were to get infected, and you could potentially infect many children who have relatively low immunity to this particular strain of flu. If you're a medical setting than you obviously have potential for much more exposure to anyone who has this new variant of the flu.
It's very understandable that pregnant woman would be concerned about getting a new vaccine and how it may affect their unborn child. But caution seems to argue in favor the vaccine rather than against it. In any case, consult your physician before making a final decision.
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posted by Bradley47 at
10:49 PM
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