Women with swine flu more likely to suffer critical illness if pregnant

Pregnant women with swine flu are 13 times more likely to become critically ill than non-pregnant women infected with H1N1, concludes a new study. The research, published on bmj.com, included pregnant women in Australia and New Zealand.

Boffins concluded that 11% of mothers and 12% of babies died as a result of being admitted to intensive care with swine flu.

The authors, led by Dr Ian Seppelt from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care (ANZIC) Influenza Investigators in collaboration with the Australasian Maternity Outcomes Surveillance System, assessed the data relating to all women with swine flu who were pregnant or who had given birth in the last 28 days and were admitted to an ICU in Australia or New Zealand between June 1 and August 31, 2009.

The results show that women who were more than 20 weeks pregnant were 13 times more likely to be admitted to an ICU than non-pregnant women who had swine flu.