COVID can be passed from pregnant mother to fetus, UM study
MIAMI - A new study out of the University of Miami found that COVID-19 can be passed from a pregnant mother to her fetus.
UM researchers found in two cases, COVID was able to breach the placenta and cause brain damage in the newborn.
While admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Holtz Children's Hospital at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, "both infants tested negative for the virus at birth, but had significantly elevated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detectable in blood. Researchers said that indicated that either antibodies crossed the placenta, or passage of the virus occurred and the immune response was the baby's," according to a statement from UHealth-the University of Miami Health System.
Both infants experienced seizures, small head sizes, and developmental delays, and one infant died at 13 months of age.
It is important to note this happened in early 2020 when the vaccine was not yet available.
"Many women are affected by COVID-19 during pregnancy, but to see these kinds of problems in their infants at birth was clearly unusual", said Dr. Shahnaz Duara, with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
"I think the message here is most women who contract COVID go on to have healthy babies, but there is a subpopulation of people who have babies who are sick, so this is not to panic the population whose babies have been exposed," she added.
The authors of the study stressed that these two cases were rare. UM clinicians saw hundreds of pregnant women and delivering mothers with COVID-19 positivity; however, these were the only two women whose babies experienced devastating brain injuries. In both cases, the mothers contracted the infection in their second trimesters and subsequently cleared it, but one had a repeat infection in their third trimester, suggesting an unusual maternal and/or fetal immune response to the virus may have played a role.
"The babies were not born microcephaly. Unlike Zika where they were born with a tiny head, these babies were born with normal proportions, but seizing tremendously, encephalopathic, not infectious that we could find in terms of bacteria, virus and over time the brain stopped growing," said Duara.
"We need to continue our research to figure out why these two babies experienced such devastating results," said assistant professor of pediatrics Dr. Merline Benny. "Once we fully understand the causes, we can develop the most appropriate interventions."
The team of UM physicians and scientists hopes that their cases will alert obstetricians, pediatricians, and create awareness of the potential dangers of maternal COVID-19 to newborns.