Vaccinations Save Lives

AWHONN Practice Alerts
Using current evidence-based literature, the practice alert will identify the issue and associated risks, recommendations, and benefits of strategies for nurses, and appropriate references to guide practitioners in a timely manner.

Date: January 28, 2024
Reason for Alert: Administration of Arexvy, the GSK RSV vaccine that is not FDA approved for pregnant persons, has been reported.

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AWHONN Practice Alert

Vaccination Resources

Maternal Immunization Task Force Resources

Preventing Influenza Virus Infection and Severe Influenza Among Pregnant People and Infants

Call to Action:

Obstetric Care Professionals Urge Recommended Vaccines during Pregnancy

The Maternal Immunization Task Force released a Call-to-Action urging the importance of the currently recommended vaccines during pregnancy: influenza, COVID-19, RSV, and Tdap. Vaccines are an essential part of prenatal care, offering critical protection to pregnant people and their fetuses against potentially deadly diseases. That is why, collectively, the American Academy of Family Physicians; American College of Nurse-Midwives; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses; National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine affirm the importance of recommending and advocating that pregnant people receive all recommended vaccines at the appropriate time during pregnancy. The ongoing decrease in vaccination rates in this population calls for an urgent commitment from all health care professionals to strongly recommend these vaccines to pregnant people.

Read the Call to Action from the Maternal Immunization Task Force

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) Vaccine Development

September 2022: Pfizer Inc. announced that its investigational Group B Streptococcus (GBS) vaccine candidate, GBS6 or PF-06760805, received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of invasive GBS disease due to the vaccine serotypes in newborns and young infants by active immunization of their mothers during pregnancy. Please see press release.

Learn more about the progress of the Phase 2 study of Pfizer’s GBS vaccine.

Madhi, S.A., Anderson, A.S., Absalon, J., et al. (2023). Potential for Maternally Administered Vaccine for Infant Group B Streptococcus. The New England Journal of Medicine, 389(3), 215-227.