NEW YORK (Reuters Health)-a vaccine against avian flu 1.2009 offers a high level of protection for pregnant women and their babies, suggests a new study from the French. "
Three weeks after pregnant women got a vaccine against novel H1N1 flu, 98 percent of them have developed protective levels of antibodies to viruses, researchers found.
And when their baby is born, 95 percent of them have enough antibodies are considered protected also, reported Dr. Vassilis Tsatsaris from Groupe Hospitalier Cochin-Saint Vincent de Paul at Paris and colleagues.
"Vaccination during pregnancy to protect baby during the first few months of life, when vaccination was not applicable," the researchers wrote in the report, published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
In the United States, health officials and medical organizations encourage pregnant to get seasonal flu vaccine, which now contains the new influenza appearing in 2009.