Researchers at the University of Miami revealed (Thursday) what they believe are the first two confirmed cases of the coronavirus transmitting from a mother's placenta to her fetus and causing damage to their brains. The team said in a press statement that doctors had previously suspected this might happen, but even before the study, there was no direct evidence of the presence of Covid-19 in the mother's placenta or the fetal brain. The two children were born to two young mothers who were confirmed to be infected with the virus during the second trimester of pregnancy at the height of the delta mutant wave in 2020, and before vaccines became available. The case studies were published in the journal Pediatrics. The team said that the two children had epileptic seizures since the first day of their lives, but they were not born with small brains, which is a characteristic symptom for those infected with the Zika virus, but rather the development of microcephaly over time as their brains stopped growing at the normal rate. Both infants suffered from severe developmental delays. The team said that one of the two children died at the age of 13 months, and the other is in intensive care. Neonatologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Miami, Dr. Merlin Penny, said at the press conference that neither of the two infants had tested positive for coronavirus, but they had elevated levels of Covid antibodies in their blood. She said that this indicates the transmission of the virus from the mother through the placenta to the fetus. The team found evidence of infection with the virus in the mother's placenta. Penny said that the deceased child's autopsy revealed the presence of the Covid virus in the brain, which indicates that a direct infection caused the injuries. As for Al-Amin, although it was confirmed that they were infected with the virus, one of them suffered from mild symptoms and remained pregnant with her child for a full term, while the other became very ill, to the point that doctors had to deliver her in the thirty-second week of pregnancy. Dr. Shahnaz Duara, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of Miami, said she believes both conditions are rare but urged women who contract it during their pregnancies to report to their pediatricians to check for developmental delays. The team also urged women considering pregnancy to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. It is not yet clear to what extent the transmission of infection to the fetus during pregnancy is limited to the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus, or the possibility of this occurring in the case of infection with the Omicron variant.
Okaz (Washington)
