In the autumn-winter period, there is an annual increase in the incidence of patients with influenza and SARS, and there are categories of the population for which these diseases are especially dangerous. The question often arises - is it possible to prescribe Arbidol during breastfeeding and during pregnancy, in what dosages and for how long. What is preferable for the treatment and prevention of viral infections in this case - highly effective drugs with proven immunomodulatory effects or proven for many centuries using traditional medicine?
How to prevent viral infections in pregnant and lactating women
It has long been proven that during pregnancy and lactation, the activity of the female’s immune system changes - the tension of both cellular and humoral immunity decreases, and the production of interferon and lysozyme decreases. All this becomes factors that increase the risk of incidence of any infectious diseases, including viral ones. But the medicine "Arbidol" when breastfeeding for the prevention of any acute respiratory viral infection, despite its high effectiveness, should only be prescribed by a doctor if the risk of complications of the disease is many times higher than the possibility of side effects in a woman and her child.
That is why obstetrician-gynecologists, therapists and infectious disease specialists say that during this period of life, every woman should think not only about her own health condition, but, with continued natural feeding, about the effect of any drug on the baby’s body. At this time, doctors most often advise their patients to use medicinal plants and traditional medicine methods that stimulate the body's defenses and not prescribe Arbidol during lactation. They recommend normalizing the regime of work and rest, balancing nutrition and enriching it with an increased amount of vitamins, and consuming a large amount of liquid. Naturally, during this period of her life, a woman should do her best to reduce the risk of infection - to avoid the accumulation of large numbers of people and contacts with obviously sick people.
Is it worth treating ARVI in nursing women with Arbidol
Infection with viruses that cause symptoms of respiratory infections (including flu) in women who have recently given birth to a baby is often accompanied by severe intoxication - headache, fever, catarrhal phenomena. Often it is a woman who becomes a source of infection for the baby, so she tries to recover as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, the answer to the question - is it possible "Arbidol" to nursing mothers, is almost unequivocal. Currently, in this clinical group, practically no safety tests of this drug, as well as other highly effective immunomodulators, have been conducted, therefore, the drug should not be prescribed in uncomplicated cases.
"Arbidol" during breastfeeding should be prescribed only in those cases when it is proved that the viral disease is caused by a really potentially dangerous pathogen. Such pathological processes include laboratory-confirmed cases of SARS, chicken or swine flu, highly virulent strains of the flu in general - those viral infections that most often have a severe course and pose a potential danger to the patient.
If you have to use "Arbidol" while breastfeeding, then this drug should be prescribed only under constant medical supervision in a hospital along with other drugs for treatment. For the period of treatment, a woman needs to stop feeding her baby with her own milk and choose an effective adapted mixture in accordance with the baby’s age and express milk to maintain and maintain lactation.