Perinatal transmission

Perinatal transmission

Subject: Science and Tech

Context:   A study published in the journal Indian Paediatrics has claimed that Covid-19 can be transmitted from an infected mother to a baby during the perinatal period.

Concept:

Perinatal transmission is defined new-born testing positive in the RT-PCR test for Covid-19 in the first 72 hours after birth and can include transmission that may have occurred in the uterus or during birth.

Findings

• The study also suggests increased morbidity in infected infants, with a significant correlation with premature births, indicating at the possibility of increased risk of premature labour in Covid-positive pregnant women.
• The study also found that SARS-CoV-2 positive new-borns are more likely to be symptomatic, more likely to have respiratory symptoms, and other neonatal morbidities but no significant increase in mortality was seen.
• Covid-19 positive neonates were five times more likely to be symptomatic compared to Covid-19 negative neonates and twice more likely to need resuscitation.
• Respiratory distress, pneumonia, sepsis, seizures, septic shock, jaundice and other morbidities were significantly higher in Covid-19 positive intramural neonates compared to those who tested negative.
• The World Health Organization (WHO), however, recommends that neonates should be roomed-in with mother and exclusively breastfed while following precautions to limit the spread infection to neonates.

Horizontal transmission Vs Vertical transmission

• In horizontal transmission, viruses are transmitted among individuals of the same generation, while vertical transmission occurs from mothers to their offspring.
• Vertical transmission refers to the transmission of an infection from a pregnant woman to her child.
• It can be antenatal (before birth), perinatal(weeks immediately prior to or after birth) or postnatal (after birth).
• This is of grave concern not just because it can potentially cause a newborn to be very sick, but also because the mechanism of how and when this happens is not always very clear
• Among infections of which vertical transmission has been known to happen are HIV, Zika, rubella and the herpes virus.
• In fact, one of the biggest worries about the Zika outbreak a couple of years ago was the possibility of babies being born with birth defects.