Doctors in France have reported what they believe to be the first confirmed case of a child contracting the coronavirus from their mother while still in the womb.
The newborn boy developed inflammation in the brain within days of being born— a condition brought on after the virus crossed the placenta, and established an infection before birth. He has since made a good recovery.
The case was the subject of a paper published Tuesday, titled “Transplacental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications.
So far, there has been limited evidence suggesting that a child could contract the virus from the womb, However, Daniele De Luca, the lead author of the paper and medical director of pediatrics at the Paris hospital, confirmed that it was possible but were very rare.
On March 24, the 23-year-old mother was admitted to the hospital with a fever and cough. She tested positive for the virus when she was more than 35 weeks pregnant with a boy. She gave birth to the child by cesarean section, who was immediately taken to the natal intensive care unit.
The doctors stated that the baby tested positive for coronavirus. He recovered and was discharged 18 days later.
They added that the baby’s brain bore evidence of inflammation caused by the coronavirus, which had crossed the placenta into the baby’s bloodstream but ruled out the chance that the baby caught the virus after birth by viral or bacterial means.
The doctors referred that there have been similar cases of babies being born with the coronavirus, but, until now, they had not been able to say definitively whether babies could contract the virus in utero.
“Pregnant women should be reassured. Pregnancy is very controlled, and if you have something like this, it can be controlled. In most cases, there will be no damage to the baby.” De Luca pointed out.
The long-term effect of coronavirus on pregnant women and their children who tested positive for coronavirus remains unknown.
The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected about 12,081,516 million people and killed over 550,000, worldwide, a tally based on official data showed. It also hit several celebrities and top political figures around the world.
The United States topped the list of the worst affected countries, with over 132,000 deaths, followed by Brazil with over 67,964, the United Kingdom with 44,517, and Italy with 34,914.
Europe listed over 2,782,032 cases and 201,124 deaths, making it the worst affected continent.
The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.
The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.
On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus” and “disease”.
In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.
Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.
It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.
The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.
People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.
