Viral Influenza Vaccinations in Pregnancy for Improving Maternal, Neonatal and Infant Health Outcomes

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 including 1 study with a total of 2116 women and 2049 neonates evaluated the impact of viral trivalent inactivated influenza vaccination during pregnancy in South-Africa. Vaccination was associated with a reduction in reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed influenza among infants (RR 0.51, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.88; 2049 infants) and women (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.86; 2116 women). There was no clear difference between the viral influenza and placebo control group in terms of maternal death, infant death up to 175 days after birth (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.37 to 1.37, moderate quality evidence), perinatal death (stillbirth and death in the first week of life) (RR 1.32, 95% CI 0.73 to 2.38, moderate quality evidence), or influenza-like illness in women or their babies.