RSS
Home
Pregnancy and swine flu
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
While pregnant women are not more susceptible to the infamous H1N1 influenza virus, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say once pregnant women are infected, they run a higher risk of having complications. Pregnant women who get the swine flu are also four times more likely to be hospitalized than non-pregnant women, according to the federal study recently published in The Lancet medical journal.
"Even though chances are that most pregnant women who get the swine flu will only have mild symptoms like a fever and a cough, they still need to call their doctor as soon as they feel sick," says Denise J. Jamieson, M.D., the lead study author and a medical officer at the CDC. "To prevent more severe complications, like pneumonia, it's best to start treatment within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms."
The CDC recommends that doctors give pregnant women the antiviral drug Tamiflu immediately. "Like most drugs, we have insufficient safety information about the effect it could have on the unborn baby since we obviously can't perform clinical trials on pregnant women, but in this case, the benefits of taking the drug definitely outweigh the risks," says Dr. Jamieson.
"Pregnant women will be in the high-priority group to receive the H1N1 vaccine once it's available," says Dr. Jamieson. Until then, the best defense against the flu is still the simple rule you learned in Kindergarten: wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. If you're feeling flu-ish, stay home from work and alert your physician. Dr. Jamieson cautions against just showing up at your doctor's office before calling ahead. "Your healthcare provider should have a plan in place for patients experiencing flu-like symptoms so they're not sitting in the same waiting room with healthy pregnant women."
And if you've had a known exposure to someone with a suspected or confirmed case of the swine flu, Dr. Jamieson says that you should still to get in touch with your doctor to receive antiviral drugs,if appropriate, as a preventative measure.
There's no evidence that pregnant women are more likely to catch the swine flu virus, it's just that there is a greater chance they will have more severe symptoms if they do get it and it can progress more rapidly," says Dr. Jamieson.Source: www.parenting.com
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
- Sex education: What are Plano students learning in school?
- Moms, Dads, and Facebook
- Seminar gives parent tips to protect their children against cyber bullying
- Battling Bullies
- Toddler sleep habits: snorting, sweating, head banging, and more
- Drug addiction — where to find help
- Part III: Child abuse: protection from, prevention of and prosecution for
- Part II: Child abuse: protection from, prevention of and prosecution for
- Child abuse: protection from, prevention of and prosecution for
- Instilling values and building character in your children
- Making mealtime family time
- 'So, Mom, what does the President do anyway?'
- How to help your children help others
- 'The Responsibility Project'
- The importance of approval and encouragment
- Hand, foot, and mouth disease; be careful, it's going around
