%0 Journal Article
%T Differences in pandemic influenza vaccination policies for pregnant women in Europe
%A Johannes M Luteijn
%A Helen Dolk
%A Gordon J Marnoch
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-11-819
%X Questionnaires were sent to European competent authorities of 27 countries via the European Medicines Agency and to leaders of registries of European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies in 21 countries.Replies were received for 24 out of 32 European countries of which 20 had an official pandemic vaccination policy. These 20 countries all had a policy targeting pregnant women. For two of the four countries without official pandemic vaccination policies, some vaccination of pregnant women took place. In 12 out of 20 countries the policy was to vaccinate only second and third trimester pregnant women and in 8 out of 20 countries the policy was to vaccinate pregnant women regardless of trimester of pregnancy. Seven different vaccines were used for pregnant women, of which four contained adjuvants. Few countries had mechanisms to monitor the number of vaccinations given specifically to pregnant women over time. Vaccination uptake varied.Differences in pandemic vaccination policy and practice might relate to variation in perception of vaccine efficacy and safety, operational issues related to vaccine manufacturing and procurement, and vaccination campaign systems. Increased monitoring of pandemic influenza vaccine coverage of pregnant women is recommended to enable evaluation of the vaccine safety in pregnancy and pandemic vaccination campaign effectiveness.On 24 March 2009, an outbreak of novel H1N1 influenza A, now commonly referred to as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza or simply the swine flu, was identified in Mexico. The new virus quickly spread and on the 11th June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the pandemic level to 6, indicating the first widespread influenza pandemic since the 1968 H3N2 Hong Kong flu. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO defined clinical and pharmacological advisory management guidelines for managing this pandemic, while European national authorities were responsible for developing national
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/819