AFP, published on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 10:32 p.m.
Babies born to mothers vaccinated during pregnancy are around 60% less likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19, according to a new American study published on Tuesday.
The researchers believe that this protection comes in particular from a transfer of antibodies once morest the virus between a pregnant mother and her baby, via the placenta.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a study including babies up to six months old, hospitalized between July 2021 and January 2022.
The effectiveness of vaccinating mothers during pregnancy in preventing babies from being hospitalized following birth was found to be 61%, according to the study.
The mother of the only baby who died during the study was not vaccinated. And 84% of babies hospitalized with Covid-19 were born to unvaccinated mothers.
The study did not take into account women who had been vaccinated before pregnancy. Only those who received, during their pregnancy, either the two doses or their second dose of the vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna were included.
“In summary, maternal vaccination is a very important way to help protect these young babies,” CDC researcher Dana Meaney-Delman said in a press briefing.
While Pfizer is expected to submit clinical trial results for a vaccine as young as 6 months old in the coming weeks, a vaccine for babies under 6 months old is “not in sight,” the researcher said.
The study also showed that protection was higher for babies whose mothers had been vaccinated later in their pregnancy. An indication which seems consistent with the fact that the levels of antibodies decrease in the months following the injections.
But Dana Meaney-Delman stressed the importance of vaccination taking place at any stage of pregnancy, to protect the mother from a possible severe case of the disease following an infection, which is also dangerous for the baby in his stomach.
