Hospital in Pune reported ‘vertical transmission’ of Covid from mother to baby (pictured)
Pune:
Sassoon General Hospital in Pune in Maharashtra claimed to have reported the country’s first case of “vertical transmission” of coronavirus infection from mother to child through the placenta.
Vertical transmission takes place when the baby is in the womb. If the mother is infected, the virus is transmitted through the placenta – an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy and provides oxygen and nutrients to your growing baby.
Explaining the phenomenon, the head of the pediatrics department at Sassoon General Hospital, Dr Aarti Kinikar, told the Press Trust of India news agency today that when a person contracts the infection, it is is mainly because of contact with fomites. If the mother is infected, the baby can become infected after birth due to breastfeeding or other contact.
So, in layman’s language, the baby does not have an infection at birth, but acquires it after three to four days, she said.
“While vertical transmission means the baby is in the womb itself and the mother has an infection, (she can be) symptomatic or asymptomatic, and she can transfer the infection through the placenta to the baby,” said she declared.
Dr Kinikar said in this case, which was quite difficult for them, the woman had symptoms for a week before she gave birth.
“Since the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) made it mandatory to test all pregnant women, the woman here has been tested but her reports were negative,” she said.
After the baby girl was born, swabs from the baby’s nose, umbilical cord and placenta were tested and the reports were positive, she said.
“The baby was then kept in a separate room. After two to three days of birth, the baby also developed strong symptoms like fever and there were signs of a cytokine storm, suggesting severe inflammation,” said Dr. Kinikar.
A cytokine storm is a physiological response in which the immune system causes an uncontrolled and excessive release of pro-inflammatory signaling molecules called cytokines.
Dr Kinikar said the little girl was being kept in intensive care and after two weeks she settled down and recovered. The mother and child have been released.
“During the investigation, it was confirmed that this was vertical transmission. We waited three weeks and tested the mother and child blood samples for the antibody response,” Dr Kinikar said.
Both had developed antibodies, she said, adding that if the antibodies were high in the mother, the baby had less.
Dr Kinikar said it was a very difficult case for them. “The baby developed a severe coronavirus infection and it took a lot of attention and effort to successfully treat the baby.”
She said they were documenting the case in a reputable international journal.
The Dean of Sassoon General Hospital, Dr Murlidhar Tambe, claimed that this was the first case of vertical transmission of a coronavirus infection in India.
“I commend the doctors who have worked hard to care for the mother and the baby,” he said. The baby was born in the hospital the last week of May. The child and his mother were released three weeks later, another hospital official said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
