A flu-stricken, pregnant obstetrician wishes she'd gotten the vaccine

When Jennifer Lang felt the symptoms of flu coming on one afternoon, she had good reason for concern. Lang, 33, is not only pregnant, she also cares for pregnant women in her Century City medical practice.

By that evening, Lang was feverish, coughing, vomiting and considerably worried. She called a pregnant patient she had seen earlier that day and prescribed the antiviral medication Tamiflu. She then quarantined herself from her 1-year-old daughter and dispatched her husband to the all-night pharmacy to pick up her own prescription of Tamiflu.

“I’m honestly most concerned about who I might have infected,” she said via telephone from her bedroom the day after falling ill.

The experience, Lang says, also taught her a lesson. Before her illness, she was undecided on whether to get the vaccine for H1N1 influenza and was reluctant to push it on her patients.

“My personal feeling about the vaccine has changed over the past 24 hours.” she says, coughing. “Now I would take it in a heartbeat. I feel like my baby has had the flu right along with me.”

Lang and her fellow obstetricians are on the front lines of the H1N1 flu pandemic as it unfolds this winter. As reported today in the Times, only 15% of pregnant women get a seasonal flu shot, and as few as 10% of the pregnant women at highest risk, such as those with asthma, get the shot.

With the H1N1 pandemic, that has to change this year, federal health officials say. Flu can be exceptionally severe in pregnant women and can cause problems in the pregnancy. The choice for pregnant women comes down to this: Get the vaccine, which public health officials are confident is safe, or risk getting infected. If infected, pregnant women then have to decide whether to take Tamiflu, which can limit complications of the illness but for which there is scant safety data regarding its use by pregnant women.

Officials for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that pregnant women exposed to H1N1 or who become infected take Tamiflu as soon as possible, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.

Lang, an obstetrician, gynecologist and gynecological oncologist, says her illness has taught her that vaccination is the best option.

“Pregnant women are hyper-aware of everything they put in their bodies. We don’t want to expose our growing baby to something that could be dangerous. ... But here I am now taking Tamiflu, a medication that has not been tested in pregnant women.”

-- Shari Roan

Photo: A prenatal yoga class at Golden Bridge Yoga in Los Angeles. Credit:  Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Joe]

Wow, nice piece of propaganda you wrote here. Did you get a kickback or are you content being a tool of the commy goverment we now have. I will not get any vaccine and i encourage others to also boycott the posioning of our citizens by the goverment.

People that support this type of thing make me sick.

[Jill]

Anyone who gets any of these vaccines should read the ENTIRE package insert from the manufacturers, so each individual can make the choice knowing what the risks are. Don’t just take the government and pharmaceutical’s blanket statement that they are safe without giving any details (which they are doing). There are several manufacturers who are making the vaccine, and each has different ingredients AND possible side effects. I was really surprised to learn that the Flumist nasal spray contained PIG Gelatin so there is no way I would get this, as I do not allow ANY pork product into my body. Before anyone makes a choice about which vaccine to get (if any) they should check online or request from the healthcare provider give them a copy of the package insert. Make a decision based on the package insert ALONE and NOT what you’re hearing from the news or government.

If you do a search on the word pregnant or pregnancy within the insert .pdf you will find that there are statements to the effect that it has not been determined if the vaccines are safe for pregnant women. I am dumbfounded as to why they are pushing this vaccine when its safety has not been determined!

Everyone should be reading those package inserts before making a decision for themselves or their children! They are alarming!

[Faith]

You need to wake up! Pig gelatin, no different than that hotdog you ate when you were 9 years old. People really need to take this serious. It not about you, it's about the 86 children in this country that would not have died from a regular flu virus. But go ahead and be selfish. In fact I dare you, to go ahead and write their parents. Tell them that their children's death was just propaganda & in fact you don't care about exposing other children, & young adults who have families. Pregnant woman and there unborn children, who cares about them right? GBS can be treated quickly, takes about 2 weeks to develop full threshold. H1n1 can kill within one day. I guess the diabetics that using pork insulin should stop too? Why don't you just do us all a favor don't leave your house. With your cardboard "healthy" frozen meals & protein water my children will definitely live longer than yours.

[Lindy Lee]

The problem is the vaccine is not as readily available as purported.

On May 2, 2009, Obama promised the American people he had the situation covered and the government was prepared to treat individuals, with 50 million vaccines already stockpiled.

This wasn't true. The CDC website indicates only 26 million vaccines have been ordered and are expected to arrive by mid November to treat the 365 million person population. That means 92% of the population will not get treated.

In our city, one child has died and thirty three percent of a local high school has the influenza. Many have been hospitalized. There are NO vaccines. Nobody was prepared and Obama was dishonest with us.

[Jon Tupy]

"Lang, an obstetrician, gynecologist and gynecological oncologist, says her illness has taught her that vaccination is the best option."

Huh, that's funny. You'd think she would have learned about vaccines and immunization in medical school.

The H1N1 vaccine is the same as seasonal flu shot, safe and proven. Since pregnant women are a group with one of the highest risks of dying from swine flu, it doesn't make sense for them to avoid the vaccine. And it's unconscionable for an obstetrician to advise this important precaution.

[novaccine4me]

Every child I know whose mother got a flu shot while pregnant has severe learning disabilities, motor skill problems, skin disorders, asthma, severe food allergies, behavioral problems, difficulty coping in the school setting and requires special education resources. Their parents are paying for occupational therapy, specialists, and have excessive medical expenses. Two relevant studies that all pregnant women should read: http://www.safeminds.org/news/wakefield-hewitson-mercury-hepB-vaccine.html
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/86181
Both studies ore of vaccines that contain mercury and both show higher rates of developmental disability in the vaccinated group. Studies have shown that the placenta concentrates mercury in fetal blood and that fetal blood contained three times more mercury than maternal blood. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that can destroy brain synapses. It is criminal that health authorities are recommending this propaganda to vaccinate a fetus with two mercury containing vaccines, which will result in even more sick and disabled children, whose potential will be taken from them before they are even born, without a single study showing it is safe to inject a fetus with an immune stimulant much less a neurotoxin. Our parents did not do this to us - lets not over-medicate the next generation. Support the work of the National Vaccine Information Center www.nvic.org.

[mbmom]

novaccine4me - you must not know a lot of people. I'm 41, mom to an 11 y/o son who does require a little special attention at school -he's working well above grade level, and as a result, has additional focus given to him to keep him challenged. He also plays soccer and is becoming proficient at cello and piano. He could read at 2.5.

I had the flu vaccine when I was pregnant with him. He has received the flu vaccine every year of his life. He's in excellent health, but our faith informs us that we are, in fact, our brother's keeper, and we believe it's our responsibility to protect others by keeping ourselves from becoming vectors of illness because of our own selfishness or lack of education. Even you.

[vinod]

H1N1 Influenza is affecting Every Part Especially in India, It started from the United States but the number of Deaths in India is a big problem for the Indian Government , but still the government in india has nothing to do with it , We don't have the vaccine for the Influenza yet, it will be available in market after march 2010, but till then the number of people dying due to swine flu will be more as compared right now. I lost my Brother in law due to Influenza , If proper vaccination should have given in time may be he would have been alive . there are just 2 or 4 Testing centres here for the Influenza in the whole country . people have to wait for 3 to 4 days for the reports ,that's what we did and lost our brother in law, and the condition of the hospitals here is below Poor .If someone gonna go the hospital for treatment ,he wouldn't come back alive, the Doctor's Experiment here with the Patient, they can't even diagnose what really is the problem with the patient. my brother in law was a suspect of H1N1 when he was in the city where i live ,they made him the suspect and referred him to the other city and the hospital they referred wasn't having the treatment for the Influenza , they took the sample and started their medicines , after three days the Sample came Positive and they say take him somewhere else we don't want to create a havoc in the hospital ,They used medicines for three days I don't know what medicines and what for . After then we took him to new delhi and he died there , cause the injury level was quiet high in lungs ... H1N1 really is Dangerous if not cured early . I lost someone due to poor conditions of the hospitals and improper Medicines , that really hurts ........