Nausea in pregnant women can be a sign of flu: Researchers

"People don't necessarily think of influenza when you include the symptoms of nausea or vomiting, but our study showed that they are common with influenza in pregnancy," said Dr. Vanessa Rogers, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and lead author of the study, which appears in the May edition of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Both physicians and patients should be aware of these findings so treatment is not delayed," she said. "I think our findings should encourage people to be vigilant and to take symptoms seriously."

Adults with flu tend not to have nausea or vomiting, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. These symptoms are more typical in children.

Early diagnosis and treatment can play a big role in avoiding complications

The researchers studied the cases of pregnant women during the 2003-2004 flu season, when the most common strain of influenza caused more severe symptoms than usual. There also were more cases of flu than expected, because the vaccine given that year didn't match the strain that was predominant.

During that period, 107 pregnant women were diagnosed with flu at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Some 93% of the women had a cough, and 89% had fever - common signs of flu - the researchers found. The found 85% had a "profound" elevated heart rate, and 60% had nausea and/or vomiting. Although "morning sickness" and nausea are common during pregnancies, the researchers said that reporting any unusual additional symptoms (fever, coughing, elevated heart rate) could help diagnose the disease earlier in these patients.

Nearly two-thirds of the expectant women treated at Parkland were sick enough to require hospitalisation. The most common complication was pneumonia, which occurred in 12% of the cases.

Despite the illness, there was no significant difference in complications between women with flu and women without flu who gave birth at the hospital during flu season. After birth, the babies also showed no significant difference in complications.

"Early diagnosis and treatment might be the reason our patients did so well," Dr. Rogers said.

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Centre