A platform that serves as a global and immediate communication tool to activate the exchange of knowledge and to be able to carry out a rapid assessment of the effects that certain infectious diseases can cause to pregnant women?
Well, it exists. It responds to the name of COVI-Preg, it is promoted by several Swiss universities and coordinated in Spain by the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid.
This registry collects information on emerging pathogens such as COVID-19, dengue viruses, Zika, Chikunguya and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, to know the effects they may have on pregnancy. The idea is for it to become the largest database on emerging pathogens and their effects during pregnancy.
198 health centers from around the world participate
The initiative, which was communicated to the scientific community through a publication in the journal “The Lancet”, has the participation of 198 health centers from 23 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and America, including Hospital Costa del Sol de Marbella.
The data collected will allow researchers and health professionals to determine the associated risks and to establish adequate prevention and treatment measures.
In fact, during the pandemic, through a communication group, feedback and information has been disseminated to the different areas of the collaborating hospitals on good practices for health care for pregnant women and the follow-up in the coming months of the registered cases will allow open new lines of research to combat the virus.
Pregnant women, especially vulnerable
As explained in The Lancet, emerging infectious diseases require a comprehensive approach and adaptable tools to allow rapid and comprehensive characterization of the risks associated with the disease, particularly in pregnancy.
Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to infections due to their momentary immunosuppressed state, their decreased cardiorespiratory capacity, and the possible problems that these diseases can cause in the fetus: such as premature births, vertical transmission, delayed growth. This has already been observed in cases related to acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, malaria parasites, dengue virus, Zika and Chikungunya virus.
The effect of emerging pathogens in pregnancy is not usually included in studies and if data are available it is late, leaving scientists and clinicians dependent on their intuition and extrapolation.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome due to Covid-19
The coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) pandemic is no exception. A record of the effects of the virus is needed to be able to make serious estimates and draw conclusions.
To take advantage of the resources, the international Zika virus network has been redefined to insert them into the new COVI-Preg registry. This structured data collection instrument is available to any center evaluating pregnant women for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Today, with increasing mobility and considerable migration, we have to use all means at our disposal to facilitate immediate communication of knowledge exchange and accelerate the assessment of future emerging pathogens.
The network will be organized to be rapidly adaptable to any other infectious agents that may arise after those that already exist, thanks to a large international structure that will allow the creation of a large set of data and access to them from anywhere in the world of easy and realistic way, with affordable costs and an acceptable term.
The data collected will allow researchers and health professionals to better understand how the disease behaves, quantitatively estimate the associated risks, and identify risk factors that can be used to define strategies for early detection in pregnancy and its prevention with appropriate measures. , as well as early clinical treatment to avoid risks to fetuses.
In this spirit of open science and information exchange, the data collected will be available to any research group provided they have the approval of the ethics committee.
Any health center that supports the registry by providing well-documented cases will be considered a contributor to the registry in any future scientific publications.
Via | The Lancet
Photos | iStock
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