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CDC urges pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as severe cases of delta variant rise

2021-08-11T17:40:40.618Z


Vaccines do not affect the risk of miscarriage, but the coronavirus can end the life of the mother: "This is by far the worst we have seen in the pandemic," says a doctor, "it is heartbreaking and exhausting. And it does not have to be that way".


By Lindsey Tanner and Mike Stobbe- The Associated Press

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged

 pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19 on Wednesday,

as a worrying number of seriously ill unvaccinated people are observed in saturated hospitals across the country by the coronavirus.

Pregnant women are at a higher risk of

serious illness and pregnancy complications from the

coronavirus, including miscarriages and stillbirths.

But their vaccination rates are low, with only 23% having received at least one dose, according to CDC data.

"Vaccines are safe and effective, and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccination as we are faced with the highly communicable delta variant and

we see severe COVID-19 results among unvaccinated pregnant people

,

" he

said in a statement. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the CDC.

[Follow our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic]

The guidance update comes after a CDC analysis of new safety data from 2,500 women showed that

there is no increased risk of miscarriage for those who received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine

earlier. of the 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The analysis found a miscarriage rate of around 13%, within the normal range.

After treating several pregnant women with COVID-19, this doctor recommends that pregnant women get vaccinated now

Aug. 3, 202101: 39

The CDC advice echoes recent recommendations from leading obstetrician groups.

Previously, the agency had encouraged pregnant women to consider vaccination, but fell short of making a full recommendation.

The new advice also applies to

nursing mothers and women planning to become pregnant.

Although pregnant women were not included in the studies that led to the licensing of COVID-19 vaccines, experts say that the real-world experience of tens of thousands of women shows that

vaccines are safe for them

and that when administered during pregnancy they may offer some protection to newborns.

[They recommend that pregnant women get vaccinated against COVID-19 but warn that the evidence is limited]

The new guidance comes amid a

surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States

, driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

Some health authorities believe that the variant can cause more serious illness, both in pregnant women and other more susceptible people, than previous versions of the virus, although this is still being investigated.

National figures show that the latest increase in cases among pregnant women is less than during the peak of winter.

However, in some hospitals in states with low vaccination rates, the number of sick future mothers exceeds that of previous spikes, before vaccines were available.

Those hospitalized for COVID-19 increase by 90% in just 14 days and there are more and more children

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"This is by far the worst we've seen in the pandemic,"

said Dr. Jane Martin, an obstetrician at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center in New Orleans.

He added,

"It's heartbreaking and exhausting. And it doesn't have to be that way."

At the beginning of the pandemic and with each wave, Ochsner had some pregnant patients very ill from the virus, although the number had decreased in recent months.

"A week or two ago that pace changed dramatically," Martin said.

"We have had multiple critically ill pregnant patients admitted," he

added, most of whom require intensive care.

Martin said he has seen at least 30 pregnant hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the past two weeks.

Most were not vaccinated.

[CDC recommends pregnant women get vaccinated against COVID-19]

Experts say that the lifting of regulations on the use of masks and other social distancing precautions and the increase of the delta variant have contributed to the worrying trend.

But in addition, the vaccines were not made available to women of childbearing age and those under 65 years of age until spring.

Early in her pregnancy, Tennessee kindergarten teacher Sara Brown decided that she would wait until the baby was born to get vaccinated.

There was still not much data on the safety of vaccination during pregnancy, and at 36, she was young, healthy.

I thought that if I got it, it would probably just be a bad cold, he thought.

But what looked like a sinus infection in June turned into severe COVID-19, which landed her in the Nashville intensive care unit for five days, on oxygen and struggling to breathe.

Pregnant women should get vaccinated against COVID-19, gynecologists recommend

Aug. 3, 202101: 36

Their daughter Suzie was born healthy on August 2.

But it was a harrowing experience.

"Not being able to catch my breath is a feeling of panic, knowing that I had a life inside of me that could be suffering too," he said.

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where Brown was treated, there were no infected pregnant patients in early July.

The hospital now admits four to five a week, all unvaccinated, said Dr. Jennifer Thompson, an obstetrician.

About 20% of those patients are being treated in the intensive care unit, compared with 11% during previous waves.

[Find out here where, when and how to get vaccinated where you live]

For some seriously ill pregnant COVID-19 patients,

organs begin to fail and doctors induce labor prematurely or deliver babies by cesarean section as a last resort

, said Dr.Jeannie Kelly, an obstetrician at the Medical Center. from Washington University in Saint Louis.

About 20% of all patients admitted for delivery last week at the St. Louis hospital are infected, more than double the rate during the COVID-19 surge in Missouri last year, he warned.

About a third of these women are in critical condition.

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About 105,000 pregnant women in the U.S. have been infected with COVID-19,

and nearly 18,000 have been hospitalized, according to the CDC.

About a quarter of them received intensive care and 124 died.

Changes in body functions related to pregnancy may explain why the virus can be dangerous for expectant mothers.

These include reduced lung capacity and adjustments to the immune system that fight disease and protect and support the growth of the fetus.

[Political and judicial battle in Florida and Texas so that children can wear a mask despite the prohibitions of the governors]

The risks are disproportionately high for Black and Hispanic women

, who are more likely to face health and economic inequalities that increase their chances of becoming ill.

Some studies suggest that the virus may also increase the risks of

preterm birth and stillbirth

, and in rare cases, it appears to have passed from mother to fetus.

Martin, the New Orleans obstetrician, noted that local hospitals are also treating increasing numbers of sick children and babies for COVID-19, some of whom may have been infected after birth from unvaccinated mothers.

Martin was pregnant when she got vaccinated last winter.

She gave birth to a healthy girl one week after the last vaccination.

"Vaccinating people is the only way out," he

said.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-08-11

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