Swine Flu Shot for Pregnant Women? — Wellness Wire

Pregnant women who get the swine flu have a four-fold increase in hospitalizations over non-pregnant women. For the pregnant women who have died from the new H1N1 swine flu influenza, the cause of death has been pneumonia. All of the women were healthy before infection. Since the beginning of the influenza epidemic, 302 deaths have been officially reported to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and 45 of them have been pregnant women. The CDC recommends pregnant women with influenza get antiviral drugs as soon as possible, within the first 48 hours to be most effective, and both the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that all pregnant women get a seasonal flu shot.