UK encourages pregnant women to be vaccinated against delta variant

In an open letter he addressed to his colleagues and affected women, he urged “pregnant women to take steps to protect themselves and their children,” stressing that “a vaccine saves lives.”

The warning comes after a “disturbing” study was published last week by the University of Oxford.

Data shows that 99% of pregnant women hospitalized with coronavirus have not been vaccinated and that one in 10 of them need intensive care.

“It is very good news that very few vaccinated pregnant women are hospitalized due to Covid-19” but “it is very worrying that hospitalizations of pregnant women due to coronavirus are on the increase, and patients appear to be most affected,” the professor said. Marian Knight, who led the “Delta Variable Case” study.

According to Knight, 200 pregnant women were hospitalized with the coronavirus last week alone.

In total, from the beginning of the epidemic to July 11, 3,371 pregnant women were hospitalized with symptoms of the disease. The severity of his condition was underlined with the delta variable, details of the study, which had not yet been examined by his peers.

WHO’s head of vaccination, Kate O’Brien, who was consulted this week on the same topic, said there was a “higher risk” of contracting serious illness from the disease for a pregnant woman.

“And this is even more true in late pregnancy, when you have a big belly and your lung capacity decreases as a result of the weight you’re carrying,” she said in a question-and-answer session, encouraging future mothers and women who breastfeed. are vaccinated.

From mid-April, pregnant women in the UK can receive the Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna vaccine. In fact, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives advise doing so as soon as possible.

According to data from the Health Service English (PHE) published on July 22, about 51,700 pregnant women received the first dose, and 20,600 in the second.

A very low number compared to the 606,500 pregnant women registered by their doctors in England in 2020-2021, according to the BBC.