Question

Which of the following vaccines is contraindicated in pregnancy?
A) Rubella
B) OPV
C) BCG
D) Hepatitis

Answer 1

Hint: Contraindication means a condition which indicates that a particular drug or technique should not be used in a particular case due the risk of harm it may cause or due to theoretical risk of transmission of the vaccine virus to the foetus.

Complete answer:
The risk to the foetus from vaccinating pregnant women with inactivated virus or bacterial Vaccines or toxoids has no evidence. Live vaccines given to a pregnant woman pose a theoretical risk to the foetus; Therefore, live, attenuated virus and live bacterial vaccines generally are contraindicated during pregnancy.

Rubella vaccine: Though immunization against rubella virus is available in a single vaccine, it is usually given in a combination of MMR vaccine which is for Measles, Mumps and Rubella. As these vaccines are live-virus vaccines, they are not given to pregnant women. Women should wait for at least a month after getting Vaccinated to become pregnant. These vaccines can affect the foetus if taken during pregnancy. So, MMR vaccine is contraindicated.

OPV is Oral Polio Vaccine. Usually there’s no need to get this vaccine during pregnancy as there is less risk of getting polio at this stage.

BCG - Bacillus Calmette-Guerin used against Tuberculosis. BCG also has live vaccine virus. This vaccine is not safe to get during pregnancy. So, BCG is also contraindicatory as it might affect the foetus.

Hepatitis vaccine: It is not confirmed whether getting this vaccine during pregnancy is safe or not. So, it is better to avoid getting this vaccine during pregnancy.

Thus, the correct answer is option C (BCG).

Note:Rubella is also called as German measles. It is an acute viral illness where the symptoms are nonspecific which makes it hard to distinguish from other illnesses. Even if the symptoms are shown, they start to show up about 12 to 23 days after exposure to the illness. The symptoms include low grade fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, joint pain and swelling, redness of eyes, stuffy or runny nose for 1 to 5 days before the rash erupts.