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Flu vaccine during pregnancy can protect newborns

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fluNew York: Immunising mothers against flu can decrease the risk of their infants getting influenza during the first four months after birth by 70 percent, a study says.

“These results are an important early step toward implementing maternal immunisation against influenza to protect young infants, and the results are impressively positive,” said senior author Myron Levine, Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the US.

Immunising pregnant women against the flu is common in the industrialised world, but not in the developing world.

This study, published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, shows that such immunisation can work in the developing world too.

The research took place in Bamako, Mali, in West Africa.

The researchers studied 4,193 pregnant women. About half of the participants received a flu vaccine and the other half received a vaccine for meningitis.

The scientists followed the women’s infants for six months after birth. In the group whose mothers had been vaccinated against flu, vaccine efficacy was nearly 70 per cent in the first four months after birth.

This fell to 57 per cent by five months, and disappeared by six months.

Vaccine efficacy refers to the percentage of reduction in disease incidence in a vaccinated group compared to an unvaccinated group.

In other words, in the flu vaccine group, in the first four months after birth, there were nearly 70 per cent fewer cases of flu than in the meningitis vaccine group.

The finding could help to significantly reduce flu disease and mortality in poor and developing countries.

Each year, influenza causes between 250,000 and half a million deaths around the world. Pregnant women and young infants have a higher risk of complications related to influenza and these complications can easily lead to death.

The problem is particularly severe in the developing world, where access to health care is often limited, and health centres and hospitals are scarce and under-resourced.

Babies are particularly vulnerable because there is no influenza vaccine approved for infants younger than six months.

Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

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Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

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