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Swine flu risk to pregnant women Swine flu risk to pregnant women
(about 4 hours later)
A leading obstetrician has said he is concerned about the increasing number of pregnant women being admitted to hospital suffering from swine flu.A leading obstetrician has said he is concerned about the increasing number of pregnant women being admitted to hospital suffering from swine flu.
Dr Paul Foggerty has urged expectant mothers to get vaccinated against the virus. Dr Paul Fogarty urged expectant mothers to be vaccinated against the virus.
The BBC has learned that in the past month, six pregnant women from the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust were hospitalised with swine flu. Women in the Irish Republic have been advised not to take the vaccine within the first three months of pregnancy.
Three of the women were seriously ill. However, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said all expectant mothers should be vaccinated including those within the first trimester.
Dr Foggerty said: "For the vast majority of women, this is going to be a benign, unpleasant flu but when you're pregnant, your immune system is suppressed and you are at risk of serious complications." In the past month, six pregnant women in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust were hospitalised with swine flu.
Three of them were seriously ill.
Dr Fogarty said: "Swine flu, for the vast majority of women, this is going to be a benign, unpleasant flu but when you're pregnant, your immune system is suppressed and you are at risk of serious complications.
"Your immune system is suppressed in pregnancy because you're carrying a baby which is a foreign body and you have to not reject that baby while you're carrying it."
"I would love to say we've got five years to test this but we don't have that luxury." Dr Paul Foggerty
Significant complications
He added that expectant mothers were more likely to get urinary tracts infections and regular seasonal flu.
But Dr Fogarty said that swine flu was a new virus which was "giving significant respiratory complications requiring intensive care therapy or high doses of oxygen just to maintain normality".
He said that he fully understood expectant mothers' concerns about the vaccine because doctors tried to avoid administering drugs during pregnancy, but he said that had to be balanced against "the known risks of swine flu"
Dr Fogarty said the vaccine has been "around for a long time".
"It's a simple egg-based vaccine and its works. It gets tweaked every year - this is just another tweak.
"I would love to say we've got five years to test this but we don't have that luxury, swine flu is coming."
So far there have been 80 confirmed swine flu cases among pregnant women in Northern Ireland, but according to Dr Fogarty there are many more as GPs are no longer testing patients for the virus.
A swine flu vaccination programme began in Northern Ireland last week with frontline health care workers and children at special schools among the first to receive the injections.A swine flu vaccination programme began in Northern Ireland last week with frontline health care workers and children at special schools among the first to receive the injections.