Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised questions about the possible cross immunity resulting from common vaccination programs and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, the Spanish Obstetric Emergency group performed a multicenter prospective study on the vaccination status of Influenza and Tdap (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine boost administered in adulthood) in consecutive cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a pregnancy cohort, in order to assess its possible association with the clinical presentation and severity of symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as to determine the factors that may affect vaccination adherence. A total of 1150 SARS-CoV-2 positive pregnant women from 78 Spanish hospitals were analyzed: 183 had not received either vaccine, 23 had been vaccinated for Influenza only, 529 for Tdap only and 415 received both vaccines. No association was observed between the vaccination status and the clinical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or the severity of symptoms. However, a lower adherence to the administration of both vaccines was observed in the Latin-American subgroup. Based on the results above, we reinforce the importance of maternal vaccination programs in the actual pandemic. Health education campaigns should be specially targeted to groups less likely to participate in these programs, as well as for a future SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised questions among the scientific community about the possible cross immunity resulting from common vaccination programs and SARS-CoV2 infection
A specific database was designed for recording information regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and the data were entered by the lead researcher for each center after delivery
Private hospital attendance and parity showed no significant differences between groups, while the proportion of pregnant women with respiratory comorbidities in the Influenza vaccine group quadrupled the observed in the remaining groups (17.4% vs. below 4.5% in the remaining vaccination groups, p = 0.007)
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised questions among the scientific community about the possible cross immunity resulting from common vaccination programs and SARS-CoV2 infection. A lower rate of Influenza vaccination has been observed among COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization, intensive care or respiratory support, and an inversely proportional association was found between Influenza vaccination and mortality risk in these patients [5]. The theoretical associations above can be affected by multiple factors that must be studied, such as ethnicity. It seems that the progression of COVID-19 is worse in people of certain ethnicities, with an increase in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission of Hispanic and non-Hispanic black pregnant women [7,8]; in turn, it should be considered that the adherence to vaccination programs varies according to ethnicity, even in countries with a national public health system
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