Pregnant women have been classified as a target group for human swine flu vaccination by the World Health Organisation and authorities in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore and the Mainland, the Centre for Health Protection says.

The WHO has recommended when swine flu vaccines become available, health authorities should consider making pregnant women a priority group for immunisation. It said infected pregnant women have a 10-times higher likelihood of requiring admission to an intensive care unit compared to the general population.

The US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention has listed pregnant women as a priority group for vaccination as they are at higher risk of complications, and doing so can potentially provide protection to their infants.

The European Medicines Agency reported 290,000 pregnant women across Europe have been vaccinated against swine flu and the number of pregnancy-related adverse events did not exceed what would be expected based on normal background rates in the absence of vaccination.

In Japan, as pregnant women are considered to have a higher chance of developing severe diseases than healthy adults, they are regarded as a priority group.

At least 80 million people worldwide have so far been inoculated. According to the WHO and countries with vaccination programmes, the frequency of adverse reactions reported is well within the expected range for seasonal flu vaccines.

The centre noted the swine flu vaccine will be incorporated into the seasonal flu vaccine according to the WHO's recommended vaccine formulation for the 2010-11 flu season for the Southern Hemisphere.

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