Breastfeeding enhanced maternal vaccination-induced protection of children against influenza
Breastfeeding for the first three months of life significantly increases the protection of children against influenza due to maternal vaccination during pregnancy. Vaccination should be given in the first or second trimester of pregnancy.Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied the effect of breastfeeding combined with vaccination of pregnant women on the risk of influenza in children in the first six months of life. The results of the study, presented during the annual meeting of American infectious disease specialists IDWeek, are published on MedPageToday.
The analysis showed that vaccination of the mother during pregnancy reduced the child's risk of influenza by about 45%. Vaccination during the second trimester of pregnancy had the greatest protective effect. In this case, the probability of influenza in the child was reduced by 79%. Vaccination in the first trimester reduced the risk of illness by only 39%, while vaccination in the third trimester did not protect the child at all.
Breastfeeding alone had no significant protective effect: the risk was reduced by only 26%. However, the combination of maternal vaccination and intermittent breastfeeding in the first three months of life reduced the risk of influenza by 56%. At the same time, exclusive breastfeeding in addition to vaccination brought even greater benefit - the risk was reduced by 63%.
They analyzed data from 44,000 mother-child pairs who came for routine checkups at least twice during the first year of the child's life. The frequency of laboratory-confirmed influenza in children during the first six months of life was assessed.
About half of the mothers (51.3%) received influenza vaccine at different gestational ages. Most children (60.1%) whose mothers were vaccinated and 57.9% of infants of unvaccinated women were breastfed intermittently during the first three months of life. Laboratory-confirmed influenza was reported in 141 children (0.3%) during the first six months of life.