If you are currently pregnant, the flu vaccine may be one thing you need to do. Not only for your health, but foremost is for the baby in your womb. If mothers get the flu vaccine during pregnancy, the baby will also be protected from influenza in the first 6 months of their lives. This discovery makes the flu vaccine in pregnant women a public health priority. You can get it at Yishun clinic
Why is a flu vaccine really needed while pregnant?
Let’s start by knowing what is the flu itself. Flu, or influenza, is a viral disease that causes you to experience various symptoms such as body aches, chills, fever, weakness, and diarrhea. This disease can end in a week, but can also be more. In fact, in the most severe cases, it can cause death. The flu virus is more likely to attack women who are pregnant compared to women who are not pregnant. Changes in the immune system, heart, and lungs during pregnancy make women who are pregnant (or have just given birth) more susceptible to this virus. Having the flu during pregnancy can increase the risk of complications during pregnancy, including premature birth. You should immediately consult a Doctor in Yishun
The flu vaccine itself is specifically very important for children under 5 years, adults over 65 years, and of course pregnant women. However, the problem is, babies under 6 months may not yet get this vaccine. That is why, the discovery of protecting infants from the flu during the first 6 months of their lives due to the flu vaccine that their mothers received during pregnancy became very useful to implement.
What is the effect of the flu vaccine during pregnancy on the health of the baby?
Scientists from the University of Utah School of Medicine studied 245,000 pregnant women and 249,000 infants during the flu season between December 2005 and March 2014. The babies included in the study included babies born twins, triplets, or even more. That is why the number of babies in this study is more than the number of pregnant women who participated in this study. Of the 245,000 pregnant women, only 10{97046983dad288601093f992dd7cc13fa53bc073003ed14347dc5023c54ab1e1} of them (or 23,383 people) received the flu vaccine during their pregnancy. The rest (around 222,003 people) did not receive the flu vaccine while pregnant.
In infants alone, as many as 658 babies were diagnosed with the flu. Surprisingly, 97{97046983dad288601093f992dd7cc13fa53bc073003ed14347dc5023c54ab1e1} of these babies (or 638 of them) were born to mothers who did not get the flu vaccine during pregnancy. 151 of these 658 babies even had to be hospitalized, and 148 babies among those treated at this hospital were born to mothers who did not receive the flu vaccine while pregnant. The scientists also got data that the flu vaccine received by pregnant women reduced the risk of the baby getting the flu by 70{97046983dad288601093f992dd7cc13fa53bc073003ed14347dc5023c54ab1e1} and reduced the risk of the baby having to be hospitalized due to flu by 80{97046983dad288601093f992dd7cc13fa53bc073003ed14347dc5023c54ab1e1} compared to pregnant women who did not receive the flu vaccine that was the fact that was conveyed by GP in Yishun
To confirm this finding, researchers tried to compare the effects of the flu vaccine on pregnant women with the occurrence of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) in infants. RSV itself is a respiratory disease that can occur in infants. And it turns out, there is no effect of the flu vaccine with the baby’s risk of developing RSV. Which means, it can be ascertained that the reduced risk of getting the flu in babies born to mothers who receive the flu vaccine occurs as a result of the effect of the flu vaccine itself.
