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H1N1 swine flu poses a serious threat to pregnant women and those who've recently given birth, warn researchers who studied 16 pregnant women and one postpartum woman admitted to intensive-care units in New York City during the 2009 pandemic.
Two women and one infant died, and there was one stillbirth, said a study in the March 26 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two case reports highlight how quickly the health of H1N1-infected women can deteriorate. Delays in seeking care, diagnosis, and treatment might increase the potential for rapid clinical decline in some patients, according to the researchers.
They said doctors need to educate pregnant women and those who've just given birth about the risks posed by influenza and the safety and effectiveness of flu vaccines. Also, doctors should immediately begin antiviral treatment in pregnant or postpartum women with possible H1N1 infection, the study authors recommended.
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Will you please just shut up already, it is becoming like a where's Waldo game to read the press on H1N1. In case you haven't noticed yet, it is nearly Spring, flu epidemics don't occur in Spring so you can quit with the fear mongering as well.
As almost everyone with a firing brain cell is learning, seasonal variation in vitamin D levels is now believed to play a significant role in increased susceptibility to viral infection. Safe, easy and cheap, correction of vitamin D deficiency has been shown in studies to provide resistance to influenza as well as provide other benefits.
Where is the evidence, the published studies, that H1N1 vaccine protects against swine flu? Without this it is no better than superstition to recommend it, despite hiding behind some penumbra of it being the scientific and/or well thought out approach to prevention. Even the many and varied seasonal flu vaccines are approved by FDA only from the surrogate marker of induced immune response, which is of course different than providing evidence for protection from disease, evidence which we have with vitamin D repletion. And of course there couldn't be toxicity from getting a dose of preservative designed to kill micro-organisms injected into your arm from multi-dose vials, how unscientific and absurd a position.
One last question, as the clinical picture of H1N1 infection can not be reliably distinguished from endemic seasonal flu, is there an FDA approved diagnostic test for H1N1 flu?
Paul
April 1, 2010 - 8:13amhttp://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/
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