MANILA, Philippines?Amid a World Health Organization (WHO) warning of a potential surge in Influenza A(H1N1) cases in the weeks ahead, Cotabato Representative Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza on Sunday urged employers to vigilantly look after their pregnant workers who face greater risk of serious illness and severe complications once infected with the virus.

"Our worry here is we are already losing an unacceptably high number of women and young girls to pregnancy-related complications. And the menace posed by A(H1N1), if left unchecked via adequate prevention, monitoring and treatment, could aggravate the problem," Taliño-Mendoza said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

The A(H1N1) threat aside, Taliño-Mendoza said 14 out of every 100 deaths among Filipino women are already due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, with 162 mothers dying out of every 10,000 births.

The WHO has warned that "pregnant women, particularly in the second and third trimesters, are at higher risk of falling seriously ill or dying from the virus."

The Centers for Disease Control in the United States has also warned that "pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalized for complications linked to A(H1N1) than other adults."

Taliño-Mendoza stressed the need for company and office physicians to watch carefully the conditions of expectant employees.

"Extra precautions are definitely needed with respect to pregnant personnel who are clearly far more vulnerable to the virus. Employers should also see to it that pregnant workers eat healthily to maintain a strong immune system and to help protect against infection," she said.

Taliño-Mendoza said pregnant laborers showing influenza-like illness such as fever, sore throat, runny nose, coughing, and sneezing should be checked up and treated right away.

The WHO has recommended the antiviral treatment of pregnant women as soon as they develop flu-like symptoms, but such medication should only be taken on prescription from a physician.

A(H1N1) tends to advance rapidly in pregnant women, who risk grave complications from secondary bacterial infections, including pneumonia, the WHO said.

The virus poses increased risk of complication in pregnancy because the mother?s body is rapidly changing, especially the cardiovascular, respiratory, and immune systems, the WHO pointed out.

The "second wave" of A(H1N1) has profound health implications for pregnant women in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and China, where there are up to 50 million pregnancies every year, and up to 50,000 of those women die from complications, the WHO warned.

A pandemic bulletin released by the European Center for Disease Control on August 27 reported a total of 218 confirmed A(H1N1) deaths in Southeast Asia, broken down as follows: Thailand, 119; Malaysia, 69; Singapore, 13; the Philippines, eight; Indonesia, five; Vietnam, two; and Brunei and Laos, one each.