Infant Protection Against Influenza Through Maternal Immunization

Preterm birth: Case definition & guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation of immunisation safety data

“…However, the thalidomide teratogenicity disaster in pregnant women resulted in widespread concerns about the safety of all medicine use in pregnancy, including vaccines. Vaccines were then recommended to be only administered in the third trimester of pregnancy to prevent any attribution of teratogenicity risk, as well as to minimise the potential risk to the course of normal gestation such as induction of premature labour [30], [31].…”

Protection of children against influenza: Emerging problems

“…The proportion of neonates with protective (1:40) concentrations of haemagglutinin antibodies has been reported to be less than 80% for the A/H1N1 2009 and B/Victoria strains and less than 60% for the A/H3N2 strain. 45 Further controls have shown that the percentage of infants with protective antibody titres against all of the vaccine strains decreased from more than 56% in the first week of life to less than 40% at 16 weeks of age and less than 10.0% at 24 weeks of age. 45 As a consequence, the efficacy of IIV against laboratory-confirmed influenza illness was 85.6% (95% CI: 38.3%-98.4%) among infants 8 weeks of age or younger and decreased to 25.5% (95% CI: ¡67.9% to 67.8%) among infants 8 to 16 weeks of age and to 30.3% (95% CI: ¡154.9% to 82.6%) among infants 16 to 24 weeks of age.…”

“…45 Further controls have shown that the percentage of infants with protective antibody titres against all of the vaccine strains decreased from more than 56% in the first week of life to less than 40% at 16 weeks of age and less than 10.0% at 24 weeks of age. 45 As a consequence, the efficacy of IIV against laboratory-confirmed influenza illness was 85.6% (95% CI: 38.3%-98.4%) among infants 8 weeks of age or younger and decreased to 25.5% (95% CI: ¡67.9% to 67.8%) among infants 8 to 16 weeks of age and to 30.3% (95% CI: ¡154.9% to 82.6%) among infants 16 to 24 weeks of age. These findings suggest that to increase the influenza vaccination coverage and convince reluctant obstetricians, a more precise definition of the best timing for maternal immunization and a better understanding of transplacental antibody kinetics during pregnancy are needed.…”

Viral hepatitis vaccination during pregnancy

“…endemicity. 33 The ACIP recommends administration of inactivated HA vaccines during pregnancy only if the benefits outweigh the potential risks, 3,7,17,[37][38][39] and inactive HA vaccines during pregnancy should be administered at 0 and 6 months. 5 However, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorizes inactive HA vaccines as C-class drugs in pregnant women, 40 the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has not drawn any conclusions about HAV vaccination in the pregnant population.…”

“…60,[83][84][85] The ACIP recommends emergency HB immunization in high-risk pregnant populations 6,10,[86][87][88][89] ; "high-risk" is defined as having a sex partner positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), having multiple sex partners within the past 6 months, requiring sexually transmitted disease evaluation or treatment, or current or recent injection drug use. 5,7,39 The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), 90 and the public health agency of Canada 88 have approved the recommendations of the ACIP. The HB vaccine is typically administered to women in 3 doses over a period of 6 months before, during, and after pregnancy.…”