doctor say a babe boy caught Covid-19 in the womb after contracting the infection from his mother , in what is thought to be the first proven shell of in utero transmittance .
luckily , the mother and baby are now doing well , although both were fairly sick before their recovery .
Reported in the journalNature Communications , Doctor of the Church at Antoine Béclère Hospital in the suburbs of Paris explain the 23 - year - sure-enough female parent was admitted to the infirmary in March 2020 when she was later into the third trimester of pregnancy . After showing symptoms including a sky - high fever and a nasty cough , she tested convinced for SARS - CoV-2 , the virus responsible for Covid-19 .
Just a few days after being admitted to hospital , doctor noticed that her baby was showing signal of distress so decided to carry out an emergency caesarean section . The minor was bear and right away moved to an isolated neonatal intensive concern unit of measurement .
run on the infant ’s blood and fluid extracted from the lung revealed he also had a Covid-19 contagion . While he appeared tidy for the first three days of biography , the baby started to become irritable and had difficultness feeding , which the report say is “ uniform withneurological signs and symptomsof Covid-19 . ” The sister went on to regain without the need for medication and his follow - up scans showed the all - well-defined .
consort to the study author , this is the first reassert case of a infant being infected with Covid-19 in utero via transplacental transmittal . Italian researchers havealso presentedtwo cases that appear to show Covid-19 transmission system from female parent to child during pregnancy , although theirstudyis yet to be peer - look back . Doctorshave previouslyreported cases of new-sprung babe test positive for Covid-19 , although it did n’t seem the new coronavirus was transmitted in the womb through the placenta .
“ This is a very detailed and well - characterized case story testify very potential transplacental transmission of the SARS - CoV-2 virus,”commentedProfessor Christoph Lees , Professor of Obstetrics at Imperial College London , who was not involve in the study .
However , some other medical experts are not wholly convinced by this claim .
“ This event sketch does not bring home the bacon impregnable evidence for transmission of SARS - CoV-2 via the placenta,”arguesProfessor Alexander Heazell , professor of obstetrics and music director of the Tommy ’s Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre at the University of Manchester .
“ [ The theme ] only show presence of the computer virus within the outer level of the placenta ( the syncytiotrophoblast ) , there is no evidence of the virus in the next layer of cells ( the stromal cells ) . Therefore , there is evidence that the placenta itself may be infected , but no evidence that the computer virus has successfully go on through the placenta to infect the fetus . ”
Though there does appear to be turn evidence of the possibility of in utero transmission , it appears the risk of newborn babies contracting Covid-19 is still down . Although it ’s a problem that clinicians should be aware of , it ’s not something that should keep ask parent up at dark .
“ Among the many thousands of babies born to mothers with SARS - CoV-2 contagion , very few have been reported to also have a confident test for SARS - CoV-2 – around 1 to 2 per centum . As in this paper , most babies do not appear to become severely unwell,”saidProfessor Marian Knight , Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at the University of Oxford .
