The government is urging pregnant women for the first time to have an NHS seasonal flu jab this winter in case there is a resurgence in swine flu.
Mothers-to-be have been added to the list of vulnerable groups who are recommended to get vaccinated, just like over-65s and younger people with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes. This year’s injection will protect against three strains of flu, including the H1N1 virus.
Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, admitted that some expectant mothers would be reluctant. But he warned that women who caught the H1N1 virus were at much greater health risk of medical complications.
People who refused a seasonal flu jab because it contained the swine flu vaccine “are quite frankly foolhardy”, said Salisbury. “To be ignoring the vaccine because of a prejudice about swine flu is putting yourself at unnecessary risk. It’s important to get that said, even if it’s uncomfortable. That attitude of ‘I won’t have a seasonal flu jab because it’s got swine flu in it’ is ignoring the reality of the risks.”
Some pregnant women refused the swine flu jab during last year’s pandemic. Out of 4.88m people in England who had one, 165,000 were mothers-to-be. Research shows that expectant mothers who get swine flu are four times more likely than healthy people to be hospitalised and twice as likely to die.
Some women would refuse to have it, mothers groups predicted. Elizabeth Duff of the parenting charity NCT said it backed the Government’s advice and was satisfied that the vaccine is safe. “A lot of pregnant women aren’t keen to take drugs or have injections of any sort, and that’s very understandable. But for quite a lot of pregnant women it could also be dangerous to get flu because the symptoms are more severe and it can ultimately put the life of the mother and unborn baby at risk.”
Sally Russell, co-founder of the Netmums social networking site, said: “There will be some resistance and difficulty in persuading some women of the need for it. It’s important that they weigh up the risks of catching flu while pregnant and also any perceived risks related to their anxiety about taking the vaccine.”
Professor Steve Field, the leader of the UK’s 40,000 GPs, backed the government’s advice. “Flu is not just a ‘bad cold’, it is a serious virus that can pose significant risk to health, particularly to at risk groups such as over-65s, the very young, and those with compromised immune systems. As last year’s tragic deaths demonstrated, swine flu has been shown to pose additional risks to pregnant women.”