flu vaccine

Despite the relative newness of the H1N1 flu vaccine, experts from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control say pregnant women can and should be at the front of the line to receive their shots.

The reason?  Pregnant women's immune systems and lung capacity are diminished by bearing another life within them, making them more susceptible to be hospitalized, miscarry or die due to contracting the flu.

So whether it is the H1N1 vaccine or Tamiflu (also used to treat garden variety influenza), the Los Angeles Times' Shari Roan reports that CDC scientists and doctors' associations recommend treatment of flu-like symptoms in pregnant women should begin even before it is confirmed they have the flu.

Understandably, pregnant women are reluctant to put drugs into their bodies that they fear could affect their babies, and subsequently they vaccinate themselves less than the general population.   But the known risks -- of death, pneumonia, hospitalization and miscarriage -- outweigh the unknown, doctors say.

Until this year, Tamiflu was not recommended for pregnant women because of the uncertainty about damaging the fetus.  That lack of data remains today, though recent Canadian studies did not find that Tamiflu caused a higher rate of birth defects than what is considered normal.

The CDC posts regular updates about how the H1N1 flu is rapidly spreading through the county, and who it is affecting most: 95 children have died so far.

Early reports are that swine flu is going to hit big, killing 30,000 to 90,000 Americans, clogging intensive care units and causing up to 40 percent of the population to develop symptoms of the strain formally known as the H1N1 influenza virus, according to a report releleased by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

What makes this year's flu especially fearsome is that it is killing middle-aged adults and adolescents. Typically, flu kills primarily the elderly and immune impaired, according to this report in the Los Angeles Times. Now, the White House council is calling this a "report," not a "prediction." That should make you feel a lot better.

Meanwhile, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that massive closing of schools won't solve the problem. Instead, vaccinations must be the first line of defense, she said. First doses of the vaccine are expected to be available in October.

"What we know is that we have the virus right now traveling around the United States," Sebelius said in a nationally broadcast interview, this one reported in the Houston Chronicle. "And having children in a learning situation is beneficial ... What we learned last spring is that shutting a school down sort of pre-emptively doesn't stop the virus from spreading."

-- Rita Hibbard