Tests conducted in 2011 and 2012 show that the influenza vaccine effectively prevents flu infections in pregnant women, whether or not they are infected with HIV. Vaccination also protected newborns during at least the first 24 weeks of life, as long as their mothers were HIV-free. There was no evidence of protection for children born to HIV-positive mothers, but the number of infants who fell into that category in this study was small. “The findings conform with current practice, which is to give the flu shot to everyone,” Dr. Karen Deighan, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Loyola University Health System in Maywood, Illinois, told Reuters Health. “This study provides greater surety in terms of the benefits of being vaccinated” even when a woman has HIV, chief author Dr. Shabir Madhi of Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Gauteng, South Africa, said in a telephone interview.

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