Experts call for reversing the decision to deny the Ebola vaccine to pregnant women
The exclusion of pregnant and lactating women from an effort to vaccinate people exposed to the Ebola virus in the current outbreak is wrong, indefensible, and should be reversed, three public health experts wrote Monday in an opinion article published in STAT.
The Johns Hopkins University experts argued it is unfair to deny pregnant and lactating women the experimental vaccine if they wish to take it, given the great risk Ebola poses to them. The fatality rate is 80 percent or higher for pregnant women who contract Ebola, and nearly all survivors miscarry.
The decision was made by the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s health ministry, based on the advice of two expert panels that advise it on use of experimental Ebola therapies and vaccines. But the DRC’s position echoes the recommendations of the World Health Organization on how to use Merck’s still-unlicensed Ebola vaccine.
“The … vaccine will give pregnant women, and the children they are carrying, a chance to live. Without it, most of the pregnant women infected with Ebola, and almost all of their infants, will die,” wrote Ruth Faden, Ruth.
