Vaccinating pregnant women against flu reduces newborns’ risk of infection, study finds

Infants born to women who reported receiving influenza vaccine during pregnancy had a 61% reduction in influenza-like illnesses in the first six months of life, a 70% reduction in laboratory confirmed influenza and an 81% reduction in hospitalisations associated with laboratory confirmed influenza when compared with infants whose mothers did not receive the vaccine during pregnancy, a US study has found.1

Current flu vaccines do not protect infants in the first six months of life because they do not elicit a sufficient immune response in …