Newborn babies are at increased risk of developing influenza, as compared to other children, because of the fact that their immune system is still weak in their first weeks of life. The flu accounts for many deaths among infants who contracted this disease from family members, who didn't get their flu shots as doctors prescribed.

 

Now, health experts emphasize the importance of parents and family getting their vaccines before small children are taken from the hospital and brought home. They say that, by doing so, the parents will create a "cocooning" effect of sorts around the babies, leaving no room for the virus to reach them. The infants can thus be kept safe from the effects of influenza until their immune system becomes strong enough and they can get their own vaccines against the human rhinovirus (HRV).

 

Duke Children's Hospital pediatric infectious disease specialist Emmanuel Walter, MD, explains "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend vaccinating newborns for flu because they're too young, however they're a part of the population that is at highest risk. Their rates of influenza-related hospitalization are similar to people age 80 and older. And, in some seasons the influenza-associated mortality rate is highest among infants."

 

In a parallel study, researchers at Duke Children's Hospital and Duke University Medical Center compared the results they had on newborn influenza incidence in the two institutions, after the first facilitated flu vaccines for the families of the babies and the latter didn't. The results unequivocally showed that vaccination of both parents and the babies, while inside the hospital, is the safest way of keeping the potentially-fatal disease away from small children.

 

"Our study shows that offering the flu vaccine to new mothers during their baby's stay in the hospital is an effective way to assure that all women have the opportunity to get vaccinated and thereby protect their own health and the health of their baby," concluded Walter.