Date: June 24 2012 THOUSANDS of mothers will be surveyed over
the next four years in a landmark study to find out whether the
flu vaccine can help protect babies from the virus in their
first year of life. Women will fill out a survey after giving
birth and will be interviewed by telephone when their child is
six months old to compare the health of newborns with mothers
who were vaccinated in the previous year with those whose
mothers were not. Six universities - including the University of
Melbourne - have begun recruiting 10,000 pregnant women at
hospitals, maternity units and clinics in Melbourne, Sydney,
Darwin, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth for the ''Flumum'' study,
which is an Australian first and the largest of its kind in the
world. An equivalent US study found that flu vaccines could help
immunise babies under six months old but surveyed only about 300
mothers over a shorter time, and did not follow up on every
child after birth. Among children, babies younger than 12 months
were most likely to contra