The vast majority of women who contract bird flu during pregnancy and their unborn baby will die from the virus, according to a new study. And the findings stress the importance of early inclusion of pregnant women in public health vaccination programs during pandemics.
The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), recommends that as human cases of avian influenza viruses A (H5N1 and H5N2) increase, an awareness around the vulnerability of pregnant women to a new pandemic is urgently needed.
The systematic review of more than 1500 research papers examined 30 reported cases of bird flu in women who were pregnant across four countries.
Published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the review found that women died in 90 per cent of cases when infected with bird flu during pregnancy with…