Open AccessNovel corona virus disease (COVID‐19) in pregnancy: What clinical recommendations to follow?
Author(s) -
Liang Huan,
Acharya Ganesh
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.1111/aogs.13836
Subject(s) - medicine , covid-19 , pregnancy , disease , virus diseases , virus , corona (planetary geology) , coronavirus infections , virology , obstetrics , betacoronavirus , pandemic , intensive care medicine , infectious disease (medical specialty) , outbreak , physics , biology , astrobiology , venus , genetics
Interim guidance has been issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on managing COVID-19, which include some recommendations specific to pregnant women mostly drawn on experience from previous coronavirus outbreaks.8, 9 Chinese expert recommendations for the care of pregnant women with suspected and confirmed COVID-9 were developed and disseminated in China quite early following the outbreak in Wuhan.10 These recommendations have been dynamic, evolving as more knowledge about epidemiology, pathogenesis, disease progression and clinical course among infected pregnant patients has been gathered. Limited clinical experience in managing pregnant women with COVID-19 and their neonates has been reported from China recently based on a case series of nine pregnancies with confirmed COVID-19 treated in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and 10 neonates (nine pregnancies) delivered at five different hospitals,11, 12 although many more cases (u003e100) of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 have been treated and delivered in several hospitals in China according to the news releases and media reports. So far, no maternal deaths have been reported. There appears to be some risk of premature rupture of membranes, preterm delivery, fetal tachycardia and fetal distress when the infection occurs in the third trimester of pregnancy. However, there is no evidence suggesting transplacental transmission based on very limited data, as the analysis of amniotic fluid, cord blood, neonatal throat swab, and breast milk samples available from six of the nine patients were found to be negative for SARS-COV-2. Whether virus shedding occurs vaginally is also not known.