Influenza-like illness among Hong Kong Chinese pregnant women

Abstract

We assessed the self-reported prevalence of influenza-like illness (ILI) during pregnancy in two samples of 546 and 2764 new mothers who were pregnant during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 peak influenza seasons. During pregnancy, 11% of participants experienced an ILI. Cough, sore throat and nasal congestion were the most common reported symptoms. Only 4.6% and 9% of the participants in sample 1 and 2 had an underlying chronic illness, respectively, and 3.3% of mothers in both groups were smokers. Conducting regular surveillance on influenza prevalence during pregnancy is essential to evaluate the costs and benefits of influenza vaccination programmes.

• Influenza
• maternal health
• pregnancy
• respiratory illness

Declaration of interest

Funding was provided by the Health and Medical Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong SAR (Grant: #10090982). The authors report no declarations of interest.