A case of acute respiratory failure in pregnancy

Influenza is usually a benign, self-limiting illness. Occasionally influenza may be complicated by pneumonia. There is some impairment of cell-mediated immunity in pregnancy so that influenza pneumonia in pregnancy may rapidly progress to acute respiratory failure and other multisystem dysfunction. We present a case of influenza pneumonia in the third trimester of pregnancy in a normal host leading to acute respiratory failure which had a favorable outcome following standard supportive therapy.