Overseas recommendations on human swine flu vaccination for pregnant women

26 Jan 2010

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health has provided information on recommendations by Mainland and overseas public health authorities on human swine influenza (HSI) vaccination for pregnant women.

A spokesman for the CHP noted that pregnant women were classified as a target group for HSI vaccination by the World Health Organization (WHO), and health authorities in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Mainland China.

"The WHO recommends that, when HSI vaccines become available, health authorities should consider making pregnant women a priority group for immunisation," the spokesman said.

According to the WHO, infected pregnant women have a 10 times higher likelihood of requiring admission to an Intensive Care Unit compared with the general population.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention listed pregnant women as a priority group for HSI vaccination because they are at higher risk of complications and vaccination can potentially provide protection for infants who cannot be vaccinated.

The spokesman noted that according to the European Medicines Agency's report, about 290,000 pregnant women across Europe had been vaccinated against human swine influenza and the number of pregnancy-related adverse events reported to date did not exceed what would be expected based on normal background rates in the absence of vaccination.

In Japan, pregnant women are considered to have a higher chance of developing severe diseases than healthy adults. Therefore, they are regarded as a priority group with a view to preventing severe diseases.

So far, at least 80 million people worldwide have received HSI vaccination. According to the WHO and countries that have already launched HSI vaccination programmes, the frequency of adverse reactions reported is well within the expected range for seasonal influenza vaccines.

More information about Mainland and overseas recommendations are annexed.

"In fact, the HSI vaccine will be incorporated into the seasonal influenza vaccine according to the WHO's recommended vaccine formulation for the 2010/11 influenza season for the Southern Hemisphere," the spokesman said.