Immunization during pregnancy with currently recommended vaccines prevents infection in the mother, the unborn fetus, and the young infant, and there is an increasing focus from different stakeholders to use this approach for other infections of importance to protect these vulnerable groups. The aim of this Maternal Immunization book is to provide a contemporary overview of vaccines used in pregnancy (and the lactation period), with emphasis on aspects of importance for the target groups, namely, rationale for the use of vaccines in pregnancy, safety, immunogenicity (immunology), timing to vaccinate, repeat doses, protective effects in the mother, fetus, and infant, and public acceptance and implementation, of existing and of future vaccines.
Jones, Chrissie: - Dr Chrissie Jones is an Associate Professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust in the UK. During her PhD she carried out a mother-infant study looking at the effect of maternal HIV and tuberculosis infection on infant responses to vaccination. This has led to her current work on vaccines in pregnancy in order to optimise protection from birth against vaccine preventative infections. She leads clinical trials of vaccines in pregnancy. She leads the Wessex Congenital Infection service and has a clinical and academic interest in Cytomegalovirus, in particular primary prevention in pregnancy to reduce the risk of congenital cytomegalovirus infection. She is the Chair of the Committee for Education for the European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases.
Leuridan, Elke: - Dr Elke Leuridan is an Associate Professor at the Vaccine & Infectious Diseases Institute, Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, University of Antwerp, Belgium. She completed her M.D. degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and obtained a PhD at the University of Antwerp, working on vaccine preventable diseases and maternal antibodies. As postdoctoral researcher, she supervises several projects on all aspects of pertussis vaccination during pregnancy in Belgium and abroad (Vietnam, Thailand). She is the promoter of several PhD students on the topic, is involved in the training of medical students and supervises yearly several master and advanced master theses. She is member of the Belgian National Health Council, working group vaccination, and participates in the decision-making process on current and future immunization programs in Belgium.
Since 2015, she combines working in research with general practice.
Nunes, Marta: - Dr Marta Nunes is a Reader, Associate Professor, at the Vaccine Preventable Diseases Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Marta developed her PhD work at the Department of Neurology & Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, USA and obtained her PhD from the University of Lisbon, Medical College, Portugal. After her post-doctoral training at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, where she developed different projects aimed at understanding the cell biology of Plasmodium falciparum and to identify molecular candidates for malaria vaccines for pregnant women, she moved to South Africa in 2009.
To approach the problem of infant morbidity and mortality related to infections she is exploring the potential of intervening through vaccination of pregnant women to protect the women and their babies against infections. This also includes the evaluation of this intervention in reducing adverse birth outcomes.
