Ever since the shocking realization in 1961 that the morning sickness pill thalidomide caused shortened limbs in babies, doctors have been extremely wary of giving any medicine to a pregnant woman…But the recent discovery that exposure to Zika virus in utero can cause severe brain damage and other problems in children triggered an international effort to develop a vaccine for pregnant women.
A new report written by an ad hoc group of prominent researchers, bioethicists, clinicians, and drugmakers concludes that pregnant women should be included in trials of Zika vaccines, once safety in animals and nonpregnant adults is demonstrated.
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Researchers have been too reticent to include pregnant women in clinical trials of vaccines, contends the working group behind the report.
[Once risk/benefit analyses] have been demonstrated, “it is unethical to presumptively exclude pregnant women from participation,” the report concludes. A woman who becomes aware of a pregnancy after enrolling in a study should be “guaranteed” a chance to stay in the trial, the report adds.…
Maternal immunization is “the next frontier,” says Saad Omer, a vaccinologist at Emory University in Atlanta. The success of childhood vaccines has shifted the relative burden of disease to early infancy, Omer says. “Globally speaking, one of our targets should be deaths among infants who are too young to be completely vaccinated.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Zika rewrites maternal immunization ethics
