COVID-19 is still rapidly affecting people worldwide but doctors are concerned about the impact of the Corona Virus on unborn babies that whether an infant of an infected mother will carry the disease? According to recent research and a case in Singapore, an infected mother gave birth to a baby who owns antibodies against the virus and is not infected by the disease. The study is still in process among the hospital of the city-state and many international measures are taken to understand the case that whether the antibodies or infection can be transmitted during pregnancy or it latter provide a shield against Corona.
The Singaporean woman told the Straits Times, a local newspaper that when she got pregnant in March, the doctor said that her infant son owns antibodies against the virus but now her son was born without the Corona infection.
According to the Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynaecology division at KK Women`s and Children`s Hospital, Tan Hak Koon mention; “the presence of antibodies is still unknown in a newborn baby but whether it behaves as a degree of protection against infection or lessens the protection duration.”
The case was made public recently by KK and National University Hospital to study the impact of Covid-19 on pregnant women and the fetus and the results after delivery.
According to WHO it is still unknown that pregnant women may pass the virus to the fetus during delivery or pregnancy because during pregnancy women have an enhanced risk to develop Covid-19. An article in the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases published in October states there has been a decline in the detection of Covid-19 antibodies in infants born to mothers infected with coronavirus disease. The research conducted in Italy concludes that transmission of Corona Virus is rare during pregnancy but it may pass via breastfeeding a child or it may pass through the placenta to the baby mentioned by KK`s Tan.
President of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection mentions: ” Antibodies in the baby after the mother`s infection proves to be encouraging and enables the broader proof by offering virus protection.” Worldwide there are many reports of infectious babies because protection is assisted by maternal antibodies and through breastfeeding.
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