Open AccessTransmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) through infant feeding and early care practices: A systematic review
Author(s) -
Swapna Kollikonda,
Monica Chavan,
Carlos Cao,
Meng Yao,
Loren Hackett,
Sreenivas Karnati
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of neonatal-perinatal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1934-5798
pISSN - 1878-4429
DOI - 10.3233/npm-210775
Subject(s) - medicine , breastfeeding , cochrane library , pediatrics , cinahl , breast feeding , population , transmission (telecommunications) , medline , breast milk , meta analysis , psychological intervention , nursing , environmental health , political science , law , electrical engineering , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry
BACKGROUND: Perinatal practices such as breast-feeding, kangaroo mother care, rooming-in, and delayed cord clamping have varied by institution during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this systematic review was to examine the success of different practices in preventing viral transmission between SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers and their infants. METHODS: Electronic searches were performed in the Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Cochrane Library, EBSCOhost CINAHL Plus, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Studies involving pregnant or breastfeeding patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR were included. Infants tested within 48 hours of birth who had two tests before hospital discharge were included. Infants older than one week with a single test were also included. RESULTS: Twenty eight studies were included. In the aggregated data, among 190 breastfeeding infants, 22 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (11.5%), while 4 of 152 (2.63%) among bottle-fed (Fisher’s exact test p = 0.0006). The positivity rates for roomed in infants (20/103, 19.4%) were significantly higher than those isolated (5/300, 1.67%) (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in positivity rate among infants who received kangaroo care (25%vs 9%, p = 0.2170), or delayed cord clamping (3.62%vs 0.9%, p = 0.1116). CONCLUSIONS: Lack of robust studies involving large patient population does not allow meaningful conclusions from this systematic review. Aggregated data showed increased positivity rates of SARS-CoV-2 among infants who were breast fed and roomed-in. There were no differences in SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates in infants received skin to skin care or delayed cord clamping.