Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Much higher risk linked to late-pregnancy swine flu

Updated at 10:00 pm on 19 March 2010

Women in the later stages of pregnancy who have swine flu have a substantially higher risk of becoming critically ill than non-pregnant women of the same age.

That's the conclusion of a study published on Friday in the British Medical Journal, based on information gathered from intensive care units in New Zealand and Australia from June to September last year.

The study says that compared with non-pregnant women of child-bearing age, those who were pregnant or had just given birth, and had swine flu, were at greater risk of becoming critically ill.

The risk for women 20 or more weeks pregnant was 13 times higher than for non-pregnant women of similar age.

Pregnant women are eligible for a free flu vaccination this winter, because of the risk. One of the study's authors, Dr Colin McArthur, head of critical care medicine at Auckland City Hospital, is urging them to have it.

The seasonal flu vaccination includes protection against swine flu.

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