The exclusion of pregnant and lactating women from an effort to vaccinate people exposed to the Ebola virus in the current outbreak is wrong, indefensible, and should be reversed, three public health experts wrote Monday in an opinion article published in STAT.
The Johns Hopkins University experts argued it is unfair to deny pregnant and lactating women the experimental vaccine if they wish to take it, given the great risk Ebola poses to them. The fatality rate is 80 percent or higher for pregnant women who contract Ebola, and nearly all survivors miscarry.
