Anuska Sen, Team bioXone
It is well known that the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) infection is transmitted by droplets and there have been recent studies showing that it can also be an airborne infection. However, there remains a huge confusion as to whether transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection is possible from mother to child during pregnancy. This kind of transmission is known as “vertical transmission”, meaning passage of any disease-causing microorganism from the mother to child either during the last stages of pregnancy or right after birth.
In July this year, researcher Vivanti and his group had reported a case of such transmission from the mother to the neonate in the last trimester. They had also diagnosed the neonate with certain neurological disorders. But, it was just a single case recorded then and so this idea did not gather much importance.
Recently on 12th October 2020, researcher Fenizia and group conducted a study using samples from several Covid-19 positive mothers and new-borns. The samples included vaginal swabs, nasopharyngeal swabs, placenta, and umbilical cord biopsies, maternal and umbilical cord plasma, amniotic fluids, and breast milk from 31 mothers. On analysis of the samples, they detected the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome in some of these samples such as an umbilical cord blood sample, a vaginal mucosa sample, and a milk specimen. Also, anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were detected in one umbilical cord blood specimen and another breast milk sample. Further, quite strong inflammation was also noticed in certain cases where such transmission was detected.
In all, they identified at least three cases of in-utero vertical transmission of the Covid-19 infection. Thus, it can be concluded that although the number of such reported cases is still very low, yet there is a possibility of the SARS-CoV-2 virus being transmitted from the mother to child during the gestation period. Therefore, children born to Covid-19 positive mothers should be assessed thoroughly and intensively monitored. However, further detailed analysis and studies are required to consider such results.
Also read: REVEALING MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF GRAFTING TECHNIQUES-PLANT PARASITES
Source:
Fenizia C., Biasin M., Cetin I., Vergani P., Mileto D., Spinillo A., Gismondo M.R., Perotti F., Callegari C., Mancon A., Cammarata S., Beretta I., Nebuloni M., Trabattoni D., Clerici M., Savasi V.; 2020; Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 vertical transmission during pregnancy. Nature Communications, 11, 5128
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18933-4
Vivanti A.J., Vauloup-Fellous C., Prevot S., Zupan V., Suffee C., Do Cao J., Benachi A., De Luca D.; 2020; Transplacental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nature Communications: 11, 3572.
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