Pregnant women are "bearing the burden" of the huge measles outbreak in Canada, Dr. Catherine Varner, an expert on emergency care for pregnant patients, writes in a Canadian Medical Journal Association editorial. "Pregnant people with measles are at higher risk of pneumonia, hepatitis, and hospitalization and have a 10-fold higher risk of death than those who are not pregnant," a study in the same journal found. Varner, an emergency physician and clinical scientist in Toronto, notes that "pregnant people do not have the same opportunity to protect themselves against infection as those who are not pregnant, since measles-containing vaccines are generally contraindicated in pregnancy because of theoretical risk to the fetus."
"Thus, people who are pregnant and unvaccinated or those who have received only 1 vaccine for measles are particularly burdened during outbreaks," Varner writes. She says that with fertility rates at a record low, there needs to be more discussion of "protecting the health and psychological well-being of pregnant people," and doctors should speak to people contemplating pregnancy about vaccination to help them "feel less fearful of acquiring measles while pregnant." The Canadian outbreak, which started late last year, is the largest in the Western hemisphere, the Guardian reports.
Authorities in Ontario, where more than 2,000 measles cases have been reported, announced last week that a premature baby born with measles had died. Dr. Keiran Moore, Ontario's chief health officer, says six other babies, all with unvaccinated mothers, have been born with measles since the outbreak began and since recovered, CTV News reports. Authorities recommend that pregnant women exposed to measles get one dose of intravenous immunoglobulin within six days, but Moore says there is also resistance to the immunoglobulin shot. "Some people, if they don't want a vaccine, they may not want the immunoglobulin either," he says. "That may be a philosophical choice." (More measles stories.)
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