Flu vaccine for expectant moms a top priority

Getting a flu shot helps moms help their babies

2014-09-18

(Press-News.org) WHITE PLAINS, NY, SEPT. 18, 2014 -- Only about half of all pregnant women in the U.S. get a flu shot each season, leaving thousands of moms-to-be and their babies at increased risk of serious illness.

"Getting a flu shot should be a routine part of prenatal care," said Edward McCabe, MD, March of Dimes chief medical officer. "Health care providers should offer their pregnant patients a flu shot each year and if they don't, then women should ask for it."

A report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention presented today by the National Foundation for Infectious Disease found that among pregnant women those whose health care provider offered them a flu shot had the highest vaccination rates.

All pregnant women and those planning to become pregnant should receive a flu shot because the normal changes to a pregnant woman's immune system, heart and lungs put moms-to-be at increased risk of the harmful effects of flu infection. Also, babies born to mothers who got their flu shot while pregnant were protected from serious illness from influenza during their first six months of life. They also had a lower risk of flu-related hospitalizations for chronic asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, a weakened immune system, and other health-related problems.

Studies that looked at thousands of pregnant women who received the seasonal flu vaccine, found that immunized moms did not have a higher risk of babies being born too soon or developing a birth defect when compared with babies born to women who did not get a vaccine. Also, researchers found that women who were vaccinated were less likely to experience a stillbirth.

The CDC recommends that everyone six months of age or older, including pregnant women, be vaccinated annually against the influenza virus. In addition to getting their annual flu shot, pregnant women can lower their risk of catching influenza by limiting contact with others who are sick; coughing or sneezing into a tissue or an arm; not touching the eyes, nose and mouth; washing hands with soap and water before touching others; using hand sanitizers; using hot, soapy water or a dishwasher to wash the dishes and utensils; not sharing the dishes, glasses, utensils or toothbrush. Also, those who live with pregnant women, or who are in close contact with them should be immunized.

Pregnant women who develop influenza infection symptoms, such as sudden onset fever, muscle aches, and cough should contact their health providers as soon as possible to begin the treatment.

INFORMATION: The March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. For more than 75 years, moms and babies have benefited from March of Dimes research, education, vaccines, and breakthroughs. For the latest resources and information, visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org. Find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Todd P. Dezen, (914) 997-4608, tdezen@marchofdimes.org Elizabeth Lynch, (914) 997-4286, elynch@marchofdimes.org

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New high-resolution satellite image analysis: 5 of 6 Syrian World Heritage sites 'exhibit significant damage'

2014-09-18

SEPTEMBER 18 —In war-torn Syria, five of six World Heritage sites now "exhibit significant damage" and some structures have been "reduced to rubble," according to new high-resolution satellite image analysis by the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The AAAS analysis, offering the first comprehensive look at the extent of damage to Syria's priceless cultural heritage sites, was completed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's Penn Cultural Heritage Center (PennCHC) and ...

NASA marks Polo for a hurricane

2014-09-18

Hurricane Polo still appears rounded in imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite, but forecasters at the National Hurricane Center expect that to change. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured data on Hurricane Polo on Sept. 18 at 10:15 a.m. EDT. An image using that data was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The image showed thunderstorms wrapping tightly around the center of the storm while one broken band of thunderstorms extended to the northwest, while the other appeared on the eastern side of the center ...

New Dartmouth smartphone app reveals users' mental health, performance, behavior

2014-09-18

Dartmouth researchers and their colleagues have built the first smartphone app that automatically reveals students' mental health, academic performance and behavioral trends. In other words, your smartphone knows your state of mind -- even if you don't -- and how that affects you. The StudentLife app, which compares students' happiness, stress, depression and loneliness to their academic performance, also may be used in the general population – for example, to monitor mental health, trigger intervention and improve productivity in workplace employees. "The StudentLife ...

Fall foliage season may be later, but longer on warmer Earth

2014-09-18

The fall foliage season that prompts millions of Americans to undertake jaunts into the countryside each year could come much later and possibly last a little longer within a century, according to new research. Climate change could postpone fall leaf peeping in some areas of the United States as summer temperatures linger later into the year, Princeton University researchers report in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. For instance, the paper birch — a popular foliage tree that is the state tree of New Hampshire — could change color one to three weeks later ...

Want to link genes to complex traits? Start with more diversity

2014-09-18

Life is rarely simple. From crop yields to disease risks, the biological characteristics people care most about are usually those considered "complex traits." Just as for height—the textbook example of a complex trait—attributes like risk for a particular human disease are shaped by multiple genetic and environmental influences, making it challenging to find the genes involved. To track down such genes, geneticists typically mate two individuals that differ in key ways—for example, a large mouse and a small mouse—and then study their descendents, looking for genes that ...

Americans rate losing eyesight as having greatest impact on their lives

2014-09-18

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Sept. 18, 2014—Many Americans across racial and ethnic groups describe losing eyesight as potentially having the greatest impact on their day-to-day life, more so than other conditions including: loss of limb, memory, hearing and speech (57% of African-Americans, 49% of non-Hispanic whites, 43% of Asians and 38% of Hispanics). When asked which disease or ailment is the worst that could happen to them, blindness ranked first among African-Americans followed by AIDS/HIV. Hispanics and Asians ranked cancer first and blindness second, while Alzheimer's disease ...

Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood worsens musculoskeletal pain outcomes after trauma

2014-09-18

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Individuals living in disadvantaged neighborhoods have worse musculoskeletal pain outcomes over time after stressful events such as motor vehicle collision than individuals from higher socioeconomic status neighborhoods, even after accounting for individual characteristics such as age, sex, income, education, and employment status. These were the findings of a multi-site research study led by Samuel McLean, MD, MPH, associate professor of anesthesiology and emergency medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The results of the ...

Global agriculture: More land, fewer harvests

2014-09-18

According to a simulation of the impact of climate change on agricultural production over the course of the 21st century, carried out by researchers led by Professor Wolfram Mauser at LMU's Department of Geography, some two-thirds of all land potentially suitable for agricultural use is already under cultivation. The study indicates that climate change will expand the supply of cropland in the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere (Canada, Russia, China) over the next 100 years. However, in the absence of adaptation measures such as increased irrigation, the simulation ...

Withdrawal from the evolutionary race

2014-09-18

This news release is available in German. In ecology, disease tolerance is defined as a host strategy not to fight a pathogen tooth and nail, but rather tolerate it to live (and survive) better in the long term. One key feature of tolerance is that the disease only progresses very slowly – if at all – even if the host carries a high pathogen load. Roland Regoes, a senior scientist at ETH Zurich's Institute of Theoretical Biology, has now transferred this approach to HIV. He set about investigating whether there are infected people who are more tolerant of the HI virus ...

Decision-support program helps keep seniors out of the emergency room

2014-09-18

New Rochelle, NY, September 18, 2014–An Emergency Room Decision-Support (ERDS) program can significantly reduce ER visits and hospital admissions among older adults on Medicare. This could have important economic implications, helping to reduce the nearly 33% of avoidable ER visits that contribute to about $18 billion in unnecessary healthcare costs each year. Details of a successful ERDS program that had a positive return on investment are published in an article in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article ...

Krebs von den Lungen-6 as a biomarker for distinguishing between interstitial lung disease and interstitial lung abnormalities based on computed tomography findings

Flu vaccine for expectant moms a top priority

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: