Influenza vaccine programs and pregnancy: new Canadian evidence for immunization

Among healthy pregnant women, excess deaths due to influenza were documented during pandemics, but the impact of influenza on pregnant women in non-pandemic years is not clear. In Canada, influenza immunization is recommended for pregnant women only if they have comorbidities known to place them at increased risk of complications or if they deliver during influenza season, therefore becoming a contact of a high-risk infant. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has indicated that additional evidence, relevant to healthy pregnant Canadian women, is needed to support a recommendation for influenza immunization for all pregnant women. In this commentary we summarize new Canadian data supporting universal influenza immunization for pregnant women and discuss ways in which the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada might take a leadership role in making influenza vaccination in pregnancy a priority to decrease influenza morbidity in pregnant Canadian women.