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Coadministering Tdap, Flu Vaccines Safe in Pregnancy

No difference in adverse events, birth outcomes with concomitant versus sequential vaccination

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Coadministering tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) and influenza vaccines appears safe in pregnancy, according to a study published online Oct. 5 in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Lakshmi Sukumaran, M.D., M.P.H., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues retrospectively studied a cohort of pregnant women (aged 14 to 49 years) in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (from Jan. 1, 2007, to Nov. 15, 2013). Medically attended acute events (fever, any acute reaction) and adverse birth outcomes (preterm delivery, low birth weight, small for gestational age) were compared between women receiving concomitant Tdap and influenza vaccination (8,464 patients) and women receiving sequential vaccination (28,380 patients).

The researchers found that acute adverse events after vaccination were rare and that there was no statistically significant increased risk of fever or any medically attended acute adverse event in pregnant women vaccinated concomitantly versus sequentially. There were no differences in preterm delivery, low-birth-weight, or small-for-gestational-age neonates between women vaccinated concomitantly compared with those vaccinated sequentially in pregnancy when the researchers analyzed women at 20 weeks of gestation or greater at the time of influenza vaccine administration.

“Concomitant administration of Tdap and influenza vaccines during pregnancy was not associated with a higher risk of medically attended adverse acute outcomes or birth outcomes compared with sequential vaccination,” the authors write.

Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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