November 3, 2024

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Health's Like Heaven.

SC hospitals see increase in severely ill pregnant patients, CDC urges COVID vaccine

Dr. Helmut Albrecht gave his pregnant daughter-in-law her first COVID-19 vaccine dose at the end of her first trimester.

About four weeks ago, the infectious disease specialist and medical director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at Prisma Health and the University of South Carolina became the proud grandfather of “perfectly healthy” twin boys.

“I give the vaccines a lot of credit for that,” Albrecht said Thursday, shortly before state health officials released a statement recommending all pregnant women in South Carolina get vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies from potentially severe coronavirus complications.

Their recommendation comes a day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to strongly recommend pregnant women roll up their sleeves, following the release of a new CDC analysis of the vaccine’s effect in pregnant women.

The study, which included nearly 2,500 women who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy, found no increased risk of miscarriage.

Previous research from three safety monitoring systems also found no safety concerns for pregnant women who were vaccinated later in pregnancy, or in their babies.

As a result, the CDC and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control are encouraging all pregnant women, people who are thinking about becoming pregnant, or those who are breastfeeding to get inoculated against COVID-19.

“It’s now very clear that these vaccines do not harm mom or baby or the prospect of future pregnancies,” Albrecht said. “So please don’t delay the vaccine because you’re pregnant or contemplate getting pregnant. Get vaccinated as soon as you can. It’s not a reason to delay, it’s actually a reason to accelerate vaccination.”

The guidance from health officials comes as more pregnant women across the country and in South Carolina are being hospitalized with COVID-19 than ever before, health officials said.

“As a new grandfather, one of the saddest things I’ve encountered in a while was to see this increased number of pregnant women in our hospital in the last couple of weeks,” Albrecht said. “Losing moms or having moms lose their pregnancy because they didn’t get vaccinated is devastating for everyone, including your health care providers.”

South Carolina health officials could not provide the exact number of pregnant women who have been admitted to hospitals or died of COVID-19 in the past month, but said it’s very clearly increasing.

“We have providers in South Carolina who care for pregnant women who have given anecdotal reports, numerous anecdotal reports of their pregnant patients with complications from COVID,” South Carolina Epidemiologist Linda Bell said Wednesday. “And national data supports this as well.”

Pregnant women are likely being hit harder now than earlier in the pandemic due to the increased circulation of the highly contagious delta variant and the fact that many are delaying vaccination over fears of pregnancy complications.

Nationally, just 23% of pregnant women have received a single vaccine dose, according to the CDC.

Health officials have long recommended pregnant woman get COVID-19 shots, but are redoubling efforts to convince them to do so because of the increasing number of women suffering severe complications after contracting the virus.

“Pregnancy is an immune deficiency,” Albrecht said. “A mild immune deficiency, but it’s particularly worrisome for enveloped viruses, and SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped virus and takes advantage of it. So these pregnant women are getting very, very ill.”

Recent preliminary reports also show that pregnant women who are vaccinated transfer antibodies to their babies. While more research is necessary to determine just what impact the antibodies have in newborns, it’s believed they could convey some protection against the virus. The same is true for breastfeeding women, whose potentially protective vaccine antibodies have been found in breast milk.

“This is just the very best and probably the only way to protect the newborns in this surge, as they cannot have the vaccine themselves,” Albrecht said.

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