One of the most widespread interventions during pregnancy is flu vaccination. Pregnant mothers are relentlessly pressured by their doctors at every visit to stay up-to-date on their flu vaccinations and it is not uncommon for mothers to receive several such vaccines during pregnancy. There has been a lingering suspicion among many doctors that flu vaccination during pregnancy is at best ineffective and at worst associated with subsequent development of both pregnancy complications for both mother and child, complications during labor, and subsequent development of chronic conditions in the child. The most infamous such hypothesis is the vaccine-autism link, even though it focuses primarily on the role of child vaccination (after birth). That is a topic for which a single blog post won’t suffice, and the point of this post is simply this – wouldn’t it be great if there was a safe, cheap and widely available remedy that the mother can use during pregnancy, instead of a flu vaccine, that can prevent the complications to both mother and child as a result of the mother contracting the flu? According to the study, the answer to that question is yes, and that simple, cheap and widely available remedy is low-dose aspirin. A human-equivalent of a baby aspirin daily fully prevented the vascular inflammation that a flu infection caused in the mother, as well as the flu-induced fetal loss. Considering that low-dose aspirin is already the best available remedy for (pre)eclampsia, it sound like aspirin is truly a “wonder” drug, at least in pregnancy. The even better news is that these findings do not apply only to flu and/or only to pregnancy. COVID-19, as well as most other viral infections, cause similar systemic state of inflammation, which affects primarily the vascular system. As such, the study below suggests that aspirin may be a viable prophylactic and treatment intervention for all other viral conditions as well.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1378610
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240702200404.htm
“…A world-first study has found low-dose aspirin may treat flu-induced blood vessel inflammation, creating better blood flow to the placenta during pregnancy. Animal studies examined whether the treatment for preeclampsia could be applied to flu infections — and the results, according to the research team, were very promising. Lead researcher and RMIT Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr Stella Liong, said flu infections during pregnancy can resemble preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that causes inflammation to the aorta and blood vessels. Low-dose aspirin is commonly taken to prevent preeclampsia, as it stops the body from creating chemicals that cause inflammation. “When the vascular system is inflamed, it leads to poor blood flow and affects the aorta’s function,” she said. “This is especially a problem during pregnancy where good blood flow to the placenta is crucial to the development of the fetus.” The research, led by RMIT University in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Professor John O’Leary and University of South Australia Professor Doug Brooks, found fetuses and placenta from mice with influenza A were smaller than those from uninfected mice. Markers of low oxygen to the blood and poor blood vessel development were also evident in the fetuses. However, mice treated daily with low-dose aspirin had less inflammation and improved fetal development and offspring survival.”
