H1N1
LONDON — Pregnant women in Australia and New Zealand who had pandemic H1N1 flu were 13 times more likely to become critically ill and be admitted to hospital, researchers said March 19.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, analyzed data from the middle of the southern hemisphere’s 2009 winter and found that 11 percent of mothers and 12 percent of babies died after admission to intensive care with H1N1 flu.
The findings confirm earlier research that pregnant women are at higher risk of serious complications if they get the flu, Reuters reported.
Ian Seppelt from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Influenza Investigators, who led the BMJ study, noted that none of the women studied had been immunized against regular seasonal flu, despite recommendations that they should be.
During the study period from June 1 to Aug. 31, 209 women ages 15 to 44 were admitted to intensive care units with confirmed H1N1 flu. Sixty-four of them were either pregnant or had recently given birth.
Women who were more than 20 weeks pregnant were 13 times more likely to be admitted to intensive care than non-pregnant women who had H1N1 flu, the study found.
Approximately 69 percent of the women had to be put on ventilators to help with breathing and of these, 14 percent needed more help with getting oxygen to reach their heart and lungs.
Overall, seven of the mothers and seven of the babies died.
"Although a mortality of 11 percent seems low when compared to usual outcomes of respiratory failure in intensive care … a maternal mortality of 11 percent is high when compared with any other obstetric condition," Seppelt wrote in the study.
