Flu Vaccine Provides Effective Protection for Both Mother and Unborn Child

Pregnant women who receive vaccines during the second and third trimesters may benefit from increased seroprotection levels. About half of newborns within the small study group also had higher antibody levels, said researchers.

Researchers looked to determine the variability of influenza antibody levels depending on which trimester the vaccination was performed. For the study, 48 mother-infant pairs were administered the Grippol Plus vaccine—27 in the second trimester and 21 in the third trimester females. The vaccine provides seroprotection against 3 known influenza strains.

Within 1 month of administering the vaccine, more than 70% of the mothers were found to have seroprotection levels that exceeded the minimum protection threshold established by the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP). Infants in the study had protective antibody levels that were detected within 2 to 3 days of delivery;  52.3% to 61.9% of those tested exhibiting protection levels above the CPMP minimum criteria.

By 3 months, the effectiveness in infants decreased to 14.2% to 24% showing minimum levels; by 6 months, none of the infants tested had a minimum effective seroprotection level.

The complete study is published in the Journal of Vaccines and Vaccination.

—Drew Amorosi

Reference:

Kostinov MP, Cherdantsev AP, Pakhomov DV. Anti-influenza antibody level in mother-infant pairs depending on trimester of vaccination of pregnant women using immunoadjuvant vaccine. J Vaccines Vaccin. 2015;6(5). doi: 2157-7560.1000297.