Hear that report suggesting that the flu shot is linked to miscarriages? Before you skip your shot, take heed to what consultants should say about why it is best to nonetheless get vaccinated.
“With flu season in full swing, September is possibly the worst time to release a confusing study about the safety of flu shots for pregnant women. But that’s what happened, and now doctors across the country are running defense to protect pregnant women and their babies from the flu,” Dr. Robyn Horsager-Boehrer, an OB-GYN and maternal-fetal medication specialist, wrote in a statement online. The unique study was revealed in Vaccine.
“The most important thing I want women to understand is this: This study does not say that you are at increased risk for miscarriage if you are in the first trimester, have a healthy pregnancy, and get a flu shot,” Horsager-Boehrer wrote.
Nanette Santoro, a professor on the University of Colorado, additionally thinks girls ought to get the shot.
“Based on the data and the slight change in how miscarriages were recorded in this study as compared to prior studies, we can’t be sure the findings are ‘real’ and can’t think of a biological reason why the flu shot should cause miscarriages,” she stated. “The message we don’t want to communicate is that women should not get a flu shot when pregnant. Influenza can be life-threatening for pregnant women, especially when they are in their third trimester. So for women who have any respiratory or immune compromise, they should not change their approach to immunization at all!”
In the research, researchers checked out 485 pregnant girls, ages 18 to 44, who had a miscarriage and in contrast them to 485 pregnant girls of comparable ages who had regular deliveries throughout the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 flu seasons. Of those that misplaced their infants, 17 had acquired flu vaccine within the 28 days earlier than the miscarriage, and had additionally acquired the vaccine throughout the prior flu season. In these with regular deliveries, simply 4 had the vaccine.
“The study did not specify when the women who got flu shots were vaccinated, but it stated that many received a flu shot within 28 days of the miscarriage and also received a flu shot during the previous year’s flu season,” she added.
“We only saw the link between vaccination and miscarriage if they had been vaccinated in the season before,” stated James Donahue, an epidemiologist and lead creator, informed the Washington Post.
“Scientifically, it is unclear why this would occur. There was no association seen with a pregnancy loss more than 28 days after vaccination,” Dr. Haywood L. Brown, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, stated in a statement. When the vaccination was given both later within the first trimester or within the 2d or 3rd trimester, there was no hyperlink to miscarriage or every other hostile being pregnant outcomes, he famous.
Verdict: Get vaccinated
Women ought to nonetheless obtain the vaccine — and it’s “particularly important” throughout being pregnant, Brown added. He famous that the vaccine is the best technique to guard newborns as a result of it can’t be administered to infants youthful than six months.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices stated it has not modified the advice for influenza vaccination of pregnant girls.
In a statement, the CDC stated the research doesn’t show flu pictures could cause miscarriage. They famous that earlier studies didn’t discover a hyperlink between flu vaccination and miscarriage.
“There is an ongoing investigation to study this issue further among women who were pregnant and eligible to receive flu vaccine during the 2012-13 through 2014-15 flu seasons. Results are anticipated in late 2018 or 2019,” the CDC stated.
Hype or well being hazard?
The authors say girls ought to nonetheless get vaccinated, however defined to different shops they needed to report on the facts regardless of the outrage over the research.
“I appreciate that researchers continue to question what is and isn’t safe for pregnant women and their babies. However, as medical professionals, we have to be careful about what we say and how we say it,” Horsager-Boehrer added. “This inconclusive study is a prime example of how associative data, particularly when it is distributed without proper context, can do more harm than good for public health.”
Dr. Serena Chen, a fertility specialist from New Jersey, famous that the research is the one one which has proven the affiliation — and just for 2 explicit years.
“Physiologically, it does not really make sense why there would be an association between the flu shot and miscarriage,” Chen stated. “We still have a lot of data demonstrating that the flu can be deadly to pregnant women, so the benefits of the flu shot still clearly outweigh the risks for most women.”
Dr. Carolyn Thompson, a Nashville-based OB-GYN, thinks the benefits of getting the shot far outweigh the disadvantages, significantly since there appears to be wholesome skepticism concerning the research.
“I am particularly skeptical about the perceived connection between serial flu shots and risk of miscarriage,” she stated, noting that discussing the subject is acceptable.
She nonetheless recommends getting pricked.
“All this being said, I still am a strong proponent of flu shots for pregnant women,” Thompson added.
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