WA Health researchers, in collaboration with the Telethon Kids Institute (TKI), have released a study that finds that antenatal influenza vaccination is associated with significantly fewer hospitalisations for respiratory disease.
The study found that influenza vaccination during pregnancy lowered women’s risk of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) requiring emergency room treatment or hospitalisation by more than 60 per cent.
WA Health Communicable Disease Control Directorate Project Officer and study author Annette Regan said that the results reinforced the importance of antenatal vaccination.
"This is the first population-based cohort study which demonstrates a protective effect of seasonal trivalent influenza vaccination in preventing hospitalisation of pregnant women from respiratory illness.
"Serious infections during pregnancy which require hospital intervention have been linked to a two to three fold increase in adverse outcomes for unborn babies; if we can prevent hospitalisations through antenatal influenza vaccination our study shows that this could provide substantial benefits to the health of pregnant women and their unborn babies.
"Approximately 40 per cent of pregnant women in Western Australia do not receive the influenza vaccine, which means both they and their unborn baby are missing out on protection", Ms Regan said.
The Effectiveness of seasonal trivalent influenza vaccination against hospital-attended acute respiratory infections in pregnant women: A retrospective cohort study, was published on 20 May in Vaccine journal and compared the health of 3,007 vaccinated and 31,694 unvaccinated pregnant women.
This follows research by WA Health and TKI researchers released in March which found that pregnant women who received the influenza vaccination were 51 per cent less likely to experience a stillbirth than unvaccinated mothers.
WA Health Communicable Disease control experts are urging all medical professionals to recommend influenza immunisation to their pregnant patients this season.
Learn more about antenatal immunisation.
For further information about the study, or antenatal vaccinations, contact the WA Health Communicable Disease Control Directorate on (08) 9388 4999.