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Infant hospitalizations and mortality after maternal vaccination
Sukumaran, L., McCarthy, N. L., Kharbanda, E. O., Vazquez-Benitez, G., Lipkind, H. S., Jackson, L., Klein, N. P., Naleway, A. L., McClure, D. L., Hechter, R. C., Kawai, A. T., Glanz, J. M., & Weintraub, E. S. (2018). Infant hospitalizations and mortality after maternal vaccination. Pediatrics, 141(3), Article 20173310. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-3310
BACKGROUND: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices currently recommends pregnant women receive influenza and tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccines. There are limited studies of the long-term safety in infants for vaccines administered during pregnancy. We evaluate whether maternal receipt of influenza and Tdap vaccines increases the risk of infant hospitalization or death in the first 6 months of life.
METHODS: We included singleton, live birth pregnancies in the Vaccine Safety Datalink between 2004 and 2014. Outcomes were infant hospitalizations and mortality in the first 6 months of life. We performed a case-control study matching case patients and controls 1:1 and used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios for maternal exposure to influenza and/or Tdap vaccines in pregnancy.
RESULTS: There were 413 034 live births in our population. Of these, 25 222 infants had hospitalizations and 157 infants died in the first 6 months of life. We found no association between infant hospitalization and maternal influenza (adjusted odds ratio: 1.00; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.96-1.04) or Tdap (adjusted odds ratio: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.88-1.01) vaccinations. We found no association between infant mortality and maternal influenza (adjusted odds ratio: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.54-1.69) or Tdap (adjusted odds ratio: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.17-1.13) vaccinations.
CONCLUSIONS: We found no association between vaccination during pregnancy and risk of infant hospitalization or death in the first 6 months of life. These findings support the safety of current recommendations for influenza and Tdap vaccination during pregnancy.