Include pregnant women in vax ambit, Sena MP writes to Union health min

Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Priyanka Chaturvedi on Saturday wrote to Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan seeking inclusion of pregnant women in vaccination ambit

Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Priyanka Chaturvedi on Saturday wrote to Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan seeking inclusion of pregnant women in vaccination ambit. The Rajya Sabha MP sought inclusion citing increase risk to pregnant women in the second wave of Covid-19.

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In her letter, Chaturvedi said that in the second wave, pregnant women have been found at an increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 when compared to others. She further quoted that a recent report found that pregnant women with Covid-19 are more likely to require intensive care unit (ICU) beds, invasive ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. She said that the risk of death is 70% higher in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women, they are also at an increased risk of a blood clot.

“About 67,000 babies are born every day in India, approximate 2.7 crore pregnancies in a year are recorded in our country, keeping this segment out of the vaccine process will not only endanger their lives but could also lead to their babies having to suffer the consequences,” she wrote. She further said, “I do understand the position, due to lack of clinical trials data on the effect of the Covid-19 vaccine on pregnant mothers. I also acknowledge that India administers a different set of vaccines other than the mRNA vaccines for which data exists,” the letter stated.