Paris, march 19: Pregnant women may be far more at risk from swine flu than thought, according to a survey published today that was carried out in Australia and New Zealand.
An investigation carried out among American women between April and May last year, in the first month of the H1N1 virus’ outbreak, suggested pregnant women were four times likelier to develop severe illness requiring hospitalisation compared with non-pregnant counterparts.
But the new paper, published online by the British Medical Journal (www.bmj.com), found in a small sample that the risk of critical illness was between seven and 13 times as much.
From June 1 to August 31 last year, 209 women of child-bearing age were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in Australia and New Zealand with confirmed swine flu, 64 of whom were either pregnant or had recently birth.
The fact that almost one in three of the admissions were women who were pregnant or post-partum was significant, says the paper.
When extrapolated to the child-bearing population of both countries, a pregnant or post-partum woman with H1N1 was more than seven times likelier to be admitted to an ICU compared to a non-pregnant counterpart who also had flu.
—-Agencies