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December 18, 2020 9:40:05 pm
Here’s what a new study says. (Source: Getty Images / Thinkstock)
Scientists have tested admitted pregnant patients for COVID-19 and found antibodies to the new coronavirus in umbilical cord blood, suggesting the possibility of transfer of immunity from mothers to babies.
The study, published in The annals – the official medical journal of the Singapore Academy of Medicine – periodically analyzed samples from 16 pregnant patients admitted for COVID-19 in four tertiary hospitals in Singapore.
According to the investigation, there was no evidence of mother-to-child transmission of the coronavirus through breast milk or the placenta.
In the study, scientists performed SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests on maternal and vaginal blood samples, amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood (UCB), and samples from the surfaces of the placenta and umbilical cord.
The researchers, including those at Singapore General Hospital, noted that most of the infected pregnant women had only mild illness and only two of them, who had risk factors such as obesity and advanced age, had a severe infection.
None of the women died, the study noted.
Five pregnancies produced live births at term, and two participants had spontaneous abortions at 11 and 23 weeks of pregnancy.
The scientists said that one patient remained positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection for up to 80 days after initial symptoms, but added that such prolonged shedding of the virus may not indicate true infectivity.
Recent reports have highlighted the unpredictable clinical course of COVID-19 infection during pregnancy. Severe maternal disease can manifest prenatally or postnatally and trigger abrupt postnatal decompensation, and its presentation can be delayed up to 14 days from the onset of symptoms, ”they wrote in the study.
However, based on systematic analysis of samples, the scientists said there was no evidence of mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
The researchers also found specific antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in the paired blood of the mother and the umbilical cord.
But they said this finding may not be conclusive evidence for the transfer of antibodies from mothers to babies, as protective proteins can also be trafficked in cases where the maternal-fetal interface is affected by inflammation.
