Helping Mothers Prevent Influenza Illness in Their Infants

Helping mothers prevent influenza illness in their infants.

Although pediatricians are well aware that influenza can be a problem for infants younger than 6 months, they may be less familiar with the high rates of influenza disease and complications among pregnant women. We provide here a summary of recent data on increased risk of influenza in pregnancy and in very young infants and on vaccine protection of these 2 groups at high-risk. Pediatricians sh...

Treatment of Malaria Parasitaemia in Infants and their Mothers

Malaria is an infection sustained by three parasites namely: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, and Plasmodium ovale. Plasmodium falciparum is the most common and virulent parasite. These parasites are present in different areas of the sub-Saharan African countries and Asia. In 2010, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria resulting in 660,000 deaths and, approximately, two-t...

Influenza immunization in pregnancy--antibody responses in mothers and infants.

This appendix has been provided by the authors to give readers additional information about their work.

Effectiveness of maternal influenza immunization in mothers and infants.

BACKGROUND Young infants and pregnant women are at increased risk for serious consequences of influenza infection. Inactivated influenza vaccine is recommended for pregnant women but is not licensed for infants younger than 6 months of age. We assessed the clinical effectiveness of inactivated influenza vaccine administered during pregnancy in Bangladesh. METHODS In this randomized study, we ...

Complex Interrelations of Trait Vulnerabilities in Mothers and their Infants