H1N1 vaccine

lol pekay!

Personal choice I guess - I am surprised that no one has mentioned it to you Pekay - it is recommended for pregnant women

Midwifes arent general practitioners - i think thats why they cant say one way or the other - they dont get trained in 'common ailments' so to speak outside of pregnancy - well not to the extent of other physicians - and this is all quite new -

All flu viruses mutate each year, which is why you have to get a new vaccination each flu season. So yeah, swine flu was last year, but I think the worry is that the same strain will come back but possibly even worse, and immune to last year's vaccinations. The flu vac at the moment is supposed to cover both swine flu and regular influenza, as far as I'm aware.

jessiesmum wrote: Sorry I haven't read back through all the posts.. but has anyone found any source of information that shows that it has been trialled for safety in pregnancy? Or any stats that show the morbidity and mortality rates for H1N1 compared with seasonal flu in pg women in NZ? I was considerng having it but haven't come up with any decent info, even Occ Health at the DHB I work for couldn't.. Last year I was advised not to have a flu vax due to the possibility of me being pg. So I've been a bit cautious about the sudden turn around. In the UK they only just started a trial on small children in Oct last year and I see that they are being more cautious with littlies in Oz after the increase in febrile convulsions being reported. It's such a tough call and hard not to get swept up in the media- hype.

The reason you probably can't find any stats for seasonal flu deaths relating to pregnant women is because they don't keep any! Never before have statistics been kept for pregnant women in relation to seasonal flu.

There has been ONE study done on the H1N1 vax, but it's results which are due to report this month haven't been released yet that I can find....but there are now some Phase 2 trials being conducted as well. More info on those can be found here. There is also a study here based strictly on NZ and Australian women if you want to have a read.

pekay wrote: I can also say that my DD who will be 10months next week has never had any form of sickness or cold, so definately don't think a flu vac is essential to simply protect your baby.

I bet it might be different this winter... Chances are you will be out and about more this winter, doing music, going to the library, hanging out with ther mums and children... It only takes one green-nosed child.... Once your baby is crawling they are so much more likely to catch stuff, those hands go everywhere and into the mouth. Our first winter was great, noone got sick, our second winter wth bubs was dire.... but living like a hermit did not appeal.

I never said H1N1 was a bigger killer of pregnant women, I just said that there is a bigger risk to pregnant women for illness, and therefore serious illness, than seasonal flu, which tends to hit the elderly or frail.

Just ask the medical professionals in the front line who was affected hardest, the people working in the labs processing the samples, and the public health nurses. The people ending up in hospital weren't the same kind of people that are seen every year with std seasonal flus. That last years swine flu affected some pregnant women seriously (more than the std flu) isn't hidden, or unknown. Or madeup. It is a matter of public record.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10633381

This is why the seasonal vaccine this year tries to cover all bases, with std seasonal flu as well as last years swine flu.

The swine flu was a new strain of H1N1, the category of influenza viruses. This particular combination of influenza was novel and unique. The 1918 flu is similar, and offers a comparison, but not identical.

As with any of this, it is all to do with you personal assessment of risk in your own situation. There are many pregnant women for whom getting the vax is the right decision for them, and the opposite is true too.

Edited by maya22

mumtooboys wrote: I read a study of nearly 1500 women admitted to a NY hospital last year, the non-pregnant women were not more likely to end up hospitalised BUT the percentage of those women of child bearing age who died from confirmed H1N1 infection and pregnant women who died from confirmed H1N1 were identical.

So comparison 1 = risk to pregnant women of severe illness with H1N1 vs standard flu = higher. My data. Last years admissions data of pregnant women compared to previous years in NZ/Aus.

And comparison 2 = risk of severe illness when pregnant vs non-pregnant = identical. Your data. Last years admissions data split into pregnant and non-pregnant. Presumably the figures are adjusted as the proportion of non-pregnant women wil be high?

Given that I AM pregnant, only comparison 1 is relevant. The presence of swine flu in the mix will have a bigger impact on pregnant women than we are used to in previous years with the seasonal flus. Hence the availability of the flu vaccine to pregnant women.

jessiesmum wrote: Mumtooboys - yes that's exactly my point!! Pregnant women are at higher risk of flu-related morbidity and mortality anyway. How can women make an "informed choice" without the information? Patients admitted to the majority of NZ hospitals are diagnosis coded on discharge so these stats should be available if deaths are directly attributed to flu.. Of course there would probably an unnatural rise in admissions last year due to the fear-factor of H1N1.

Read this
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10633381
Or listen to this
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2010/03/19/1247f8624e02
here is the BMJ article
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/340/mar18_3/c1279

Oh and drs who admit to hospital tend to admit on the basis on how ill he person is... primarily because if you have a full hospital, you don't admit a patient because of a "fear-factor" but because the person needs medical care.

Edited by maya22

Maya22 - thanks for the link to the BMJ article. That's what I'd been looking for.

What I meant was that you can't control people presenting to EC who are scared they have H1N1. And let's face it, who wouldn't be, especially if they are high-risk like pregnant women?! They get included in statistical "admissions" if they sit in EC long enough.

Raspberryjam - great that your daughter was fine after her vax. The reason I was asking about the stats is that the health professionals I spoke with (at the DHB I work for) weren't able to give me much to go on so I didn't feel comfortable choosing whether or not I should be vaccinated. If my daughter was still in daycare I'd definitely have her done.

I got this done as soon as I could (and it was free for me). I had a positive test for swine flu last year and it wasn't nice, so decided I would help us both by getting jabbed this year before it had a chance to get its grubby paws on me again.

Had to wait until the second trimester though