Ausgewählte tropische Infektionskrankheiten in der Schwangerschaft

About 500,000 pregnant women and 4 million babies die during the first 4 weeks of life every year, and in the last 3 months of pregnancy 4 million babies are stillborn; 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries, reflecting the poor standard of medical care and hygiene. The high mortality of pregnant women and newborns is due to malnutrition, bleeding, anemia, hypertension, miscarriage, abortion, obstructed labor, and infections. High-risk infections for pregnant women and their unborn children are Plasmodium falciparum malaria, helminthic infections, hemorrhagic fever viruses, hepatitis E, but also toxoplasmosis, tetanus, puerperal sepsis, and HIV. Pregnant women should be discouraged from traveling to tropical areas and countries with poor standards of hygiene and medical care. When undertaking a journey, pregnant travelers should be vaccinated against tetanus, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella. Depending on the destination prophylaxis or vaccinations for malaria, hepatitis A and B, typhoid fever, yellow fever, meningococci, rabies, and Japanese encephalitis are recommended. If possible, all these vaccines should be administered before the pregnancy.