A new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.
Such an effect had been hypothesised – because of the transfer of antibodies through the placenta during pregnancy and through breast milk after birth
but wasn’t backed by real-world evidence until now.
The CDC carried out a study involving 379 babies aged up to six months
who were hospitalised in 20 paediatric centers from July 2021 to January 2022.
The authors studied the odds of COVID-19 vaccination among mothers whose babies were hospitalised with the disease (176 infants) compared to the odds of vaccination among mothers whose babies were hospitalized for non-COVID reasons (203 infants), who were a control group.
This is a statistical method used in real world studies to try to examine patients with similar characteristics and is often used when it’s not possible or ethical to carry out a randomised clinical trial.
“Babies less than six months old whose mothers were vaccinated were 61 percent less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19,” CDC researcher Dana Meaney-Delman said in a press call.
What’s more, 84 per cent of babies who were hospitalised with COVID-19 were born to people not vaccinated during pregnancy. The one baby who died in the study was born to a mother who was not vaccinated.
Black and Hispanic babies were disproportionately hospitalized for COVID.
“The bottom line is that maternal vaccination is a really important way to help protect these young infants,
The study further found that completion of a two-dose vaccine series later in pregnancy was more protective than earlier in pregnancy – 80 percent compared to 32 per cent.
Although that is consistent with what is known about the waning of antibody levels in the months that follow vaccination, Meaney-Delman said it was important for people to get vaccinated at any stage during pregnancy in order to protect both the mother and baby.
“If we have a woman who comes in in the first trimester and is vaccinated she can actually be eligible for a booster vaccine later in pregnancy,” she said, but added it was premature for the agency to recommend boosters specifically for the pregnant.
A limitation of the study was it began during the early phase of vaccine rollout and did not include mothers who were vaccinated prior to pregnancy.
Source: Healthwise
