Lusas Health authorities are investigating another case of a pregnant woman who lost her fetus at 34 weeks, five days after being vaccinated against influenza A. It is the second event being in that country, authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine the causes.
The pregnant woman was 32 years old and, according to doctors, “the fetus was in a position to be born, but he was already dead.”
Telhado Conceicao, Director of Gynecology and Obstetrics Service of CUF Descobertas private hospital, said at a press conference that you can not make a connection between the vaccine and fetal death. He also noted that the causes of fetal death can not be established until an autopsy is performed and that this may not yield conclusive data.
Maybe nothing is found and vaccination and fetal death are “pure and simple accidental”
The doctor Luis Graza, an obstetrician at Hospital CUF Descobertas Lisbon, where the woman was admitted on Monday, denied any connection between the vaccine and the baby’s death.
According to Graza, “direct association between vaccination and fetal death, at least in the case of Portalegre (first registered in Portugal) is excluded in preliminary autopsy results.”
The first case occurred last Sunday at a hospital in Portalegre. The woman was 34 weeks of gestation and the fetus died three days after the vaccine was given to the mother.
Francisco George, Director of Public Health of Portugal, was quoted today, recalled that last year there were 263 fetal deaths in Portugal from 28 weeks .Las Lusas health authorities have recommended that pregnant women get vaccinated against influenza A by the increased risk of developing complications if they contract the virus.
The secretary of State for Health, Manuel Pizarro, has underlined its “full confidence” in the work of supervision over the safety of vaccines made by Health Services.
Influenza vaccine began to be given this month Portugal to so-called “risk groups” such as health and service personnel, pregnant women and chronically ill patients.
