Flu

Biography

Biography: Periolo Natalia

Abstract

Pregnant women are at increased risk for severe illness from influenza virus infection. Immunological and hormonal alterations place women at increased riskfor influenza-related severe illnesses including hospitalization and death. Although A(H1N1) pdm09infection resulted in increased disease severity in pregnant women, the precise mechanisms responsiblefor this risk have yet to be established. During the 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic, pregnant women were generally at increased risk for severe disease, including disease leading to hospitalization, admission to an intensive care unit, or death, as compared with nonpregnant women and the general population. In Argentina, it was estimated that the mortality rate per 100,000 person-years (py) ranged from 1.5 among persons aged 5–44 years to 5.6 among persons aged ≥65 years. An analysis of 332 case fatalities infectedwith A(H1N1)pdm09 virus showed that twenty (6%) were among pregnant or postpartum women of who monly 47% had been diag-nosed with comorbid disorders .Studies have demonstrated that the over-production of specific inflammatory cytokines, such as the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-,interleukin (IL), IL-6 and IL-10, as well as the polymorphonuclearneutrophil CC chemokine- IL-8, is the hallmark of viral infection. In an attempt to elucidate the innate immune response to A(H1N1) pdm09 infection and to gain further insight into cytokine-mediated pathogenesis, we retrospectively evaluated the expression levels of a panel of cytokines, chemokines, and viral replication in different groups of pregnant women according to the severity of the infection.