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Influenza A Pneumonia is five times more common in pregnant women
(Navarra) ENVIRONMENT-HEALTH HEALTH |> AREA: Public health
28.12.2010 / 13:40 h
Pamplona, 28 dic (EFE) .- The serious viral pneumonia associated with influenza A is five times more common in pregnant women, concludes a prospective study of this disease in women of childbearing age who have participated in the Hospital's medical Navarra.
The work, entitled "The 2009 Influenza A/H1N1 severe in pregnant women in Spain" has been accepted for publication in the American journal "Critical Care Medicine, advises the Government of Navarra in a statement.
This is a joint research project with faculty from hospitals Vall d'Hebron (Barcelona), Juan XXIII (Tarragona), Hospital (Valladolid) and the Spanish Society of Intensive Care Medicine and Coronary Units.
The study consisted of follow-up, between April 2009 and February 2010, cases of women of reproductive age (between 15 and 44 years) admitted to 148 Spanish ICU with viral pneumonia associated with influenza A.
In total, we studied 234 cases of women in this age range, of which 50 were pregnant women, over 20%, and found that pneumonia was five times more common in pregnant women than in those who were not .
The lower rate of incidence corresponds to the initiation of therapy within the first 48 hours after symptom onset, although only a minority of women had received antiviral treatment at that time.
The mortality rate of women affected by this type of pneumonia reached 14%.
Obesity, the delay in the diagnosis of viral infection and delayed admission to the ICU and the beginning of antiviral treatment were negative factors in the severity and progression of the disease.
Therefore, the study authors recommend annual vaccination, especially in this risk group, and added that another factor is the Influenza A constantly changing.
In Navarre, during the pandemic, the therapeutic treatment of patients suffering from viral pneumonia associated with influenza A was reinforced with specific antiviral drugs, and the acquisition of 15 aircraft "respirators" last generation, given the difficult management respiratory failure that caused this type of pneumonia, hitherto unknown.
The study was presented this morning by the doctor Enrique Marav?, first author of the work, in an act that was accompanied by doctors of CHN Jos? Ramos and Isabel Jimenez, assigned to the ICU of the Hospital Virgen del Camino old and by the managing director of CHN, Fernando Boneta. EFE
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