Vaccinating mothers against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during late pregnancy to protect their newborns is not associated with an increased risk of preterm birth or other poor outcomes, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. Infants are particularly vulnerable to the virus which can cause a serious lower respiratory illness.
The study, published July 8 in JAMA Network Open, adds real-world evidence to the existing data from clinical trials about the safety of Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine. The researchers found that there wasn’t a significant statistical difference in preterm birth rates between vaccinated women (5.9%) and unvaccinated women (6.7%).
“The real-world evidence provides an additional layer of confidence about the safety of this vaccine during pregnancy,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Moeun Son, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Randomized clinical trials don’t always emulate the populations we see in the clinical setting, but now we have data from multiple populations showing no increase in preterm birth risk.”
