Although serious complications are not observed in babies and children affected by COVID-19, one of the unknowns about the epidemiology of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is whether pregnant women would transmit it to their children during the stage of gestation. The study of this casuistry is essential, since in previous outbreaks of other coronaviruses, scientists did not find evidence of viral transmission from mother to child, but the Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) of 2003 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) of 2012 were associated with critical maternal illness, miscarriage, or even maternal death.
Little by little we are learning more data about the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and, although it is still too early to make robust conclusions in this regard, a team of Chinese researchers has just published a study in the journal Frontires in Pediatrics that would give an approximation on how the virus behaves during fetal development. Their findings suggest that coronavirus infection does not appear to be transmitted from pregnant mothers to newborns at birth.
Method
This is a study with a very small sample, only four women ; But it is the second that has been carried out in China in the last month to study whether or not mothers suffering from COVID-19 during pregnancy infect their babies; both have concluded that the coronavirus infection would not occur. The first study looked at nine pregnant women infected with COVID-19 , and the researchers also found no evidence that the viral infection can be transmitted to newborns. All nine births were performed by cesarean section.
All four mothers in the newly published study gave birth at Wuhan Union Hospital while infected. Three of the four births were carried out by caesarean section. None of the babies developed serious symptoms associated with COVID-19 , such as fever or cough, although all were initially isolated in neonatal intensive care units and fed infant formula.
Three of the four babies tested negative for respiratory infection, while the mother of the fourth child refused permission for the test. One of the newborns experienced a minor respiratory problem for three days, and was treated with noninvasive mechanical ventilation. In addition, two of the babies, including the one with a respiratory problem, had rashes on their bodies that eventually disappeared on their own. But it is impossible to conclude whether there is a connection between these other medical problems and COVID-19 . All four babies remain healthy and their mothers have also fully recovered from the coronavirus infection.
Natural childbirth needs more study
In order to avoid possible infections caused by perinatal and postnatal transmission, most of the pregnant women in both studies underwent a caesarean section, except for one of them. According to lead author Dr. Yalan Liu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology: “ The baby who was born naturally also did not have respiratory symptoms. Vaginal delivery needs more study ”.
Additionally, the authors acknowledged that more research is needed on other aspects of possible COVID-19 infection in newborns and children. To this end, researchers are now focusing on collecting additional samples from newborns, including placenta, amniotic fluid, neonatal blood, and gastric fluid, among others, to detect potential receptors for the virus.
Referencia:
Yalan Liu et al. Infants Born to Mothers with a New Coronavirus (COVID-19) Front. Pediatr. Doi: 10.3389/fped.2020.00104
