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. 2022 Jan 28;10(2):206.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines10020206.

The Influenza Vaccine May Protect Pregnant and Postpartum Women against Severe COVID-19

Cristiane de Freitas Paganoti  1 , Agatha Sacramento Rodrigues  2 , Rossana Pulcineli Vieira Francisco  3 , Rafaela Alkmin da Costa  1
Affiliations

The Influenza Vaccine May Protect Pregnant and Postpartum Women against Severe COVID-19

Cristiane de Freitas Paganoti et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has imposed a huge challenge on the antenatal care of pregnant women worldwide, with the maternal mortality rate being raised to alarming levels. While COVID-19 vaccines were developed, some studies highlighted a possible relationship between influenza vaccination and lower odds of COVID-19 infection. As obstetric patients belong to a high-risk group for respiratory diseases, this study evaluated whether influenza vaccination reduces the severity of COVID-19 infection and mortality among pregnant and postpartum women. We conducted a retrospective cohort study on 3370 pregnant and postpartum women from the Brazilian national database, where they were grouped according to their influenza vaccination status before the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. The intensive care unit admission and intubation rates were significantly higher among subjects in the unvaccinated group (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). The odds of mortality risk among those who received the vaccine was 0.33, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.23-0.47. The numbers of patients who needed to be vaccinated to avoid a case of intensive care unit admission, intubation, or death due to COVID-19 were 11, 15, and 11, respectively. Influenza vaccines could confer protection against severe COVID-19 infection in pregnant and postpartum women.

Keywords: COVID-19; influenza vaccines; maternal mortality; pregnancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart depicting the enrollment process, explaining how the final number of subjects was derived for evaluation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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