#4874
A pair of vaccine-related studies appear today in the eMJA (electronic version of the Medical Journal of Australia) that document low influenza vaccine uptake in Australia’s general population, and particularly among pregnant women.
The first study finds that only about 19% of Western Australia’s population took the pandemic vaccine, ranging from just over 10% of pregnant women to just over 50% of Health Care Workers.
The 10% uptake among pregnant women – a group who are at particularly high risk of complications from influenza – compares poorly to the 38% uptake in the same demographic group in the United States.
The second study points out the reluctance to vaccinating pregnant women extends beyond the individual concerns of patients to many health care providers who either did not offer the vaccine or actively counseled against it.
Both studies are online, and may be read in their entirety.
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza vaccination coverage in Western Australia
Donna B Mak, Alison M Daly, Paul K Armstrong and Paul V Effler
Our estimate of pandemic influenza vaccination coverage in the adult population of WA is comparable to the national estimate of 19%, but it did not reach levels considered sufficient to interrupt community transmission.
Future influenza vaccination programs should target groups at increased risk of severe influenza, such as pregnant women.
Research
Scott W White, Rodney W Petersen and Julie A Quinlivan
Conclusions:
Uptake of H1N1-specific influenza vaccine in pregnant women was poor. Reasons for this relate both to vaccination not being offered to or actively sought by the women, as well as concerns — of both the women and their GPs — about vaccine safety in pregnancy.
Uptake in this setting may improve if vaccination is offered through public antenatal clinics with concurrent safety education for obstetricians and vaccination providers.
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