A Singaporean woman, who became infected with the new coronavirus in March when she was pregnant, gave birth to a baby with antibodies to the virus, offering a new clue as to whether the infection can be transmitted from mother to child.
The baby was born this month without Covid-19 but with antibodies to the virus, the Straits Times newspaper reported Sunday, citing the mother.
“My doctor suspects that I have transferred my Covid-19 antibodies to her during my pregnancy,” Celine Ng-Chan told the newspaper.
Ng-Chan had been mildly ill from the illness and was released from the hospital after two and a half weeks, the Straits Times said.
Ng-Chan and the National University Hospital (NUH), where she gave birth, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The World Health Organization says that it is not yet known whether a pregnant woman with Covid-19 can transmit the virus to her fetus or baby during pregnancy or delivery.
To date, the active virus has not been found in fluid samples around the baby in the womb or in breast milk.
Doctors in China have reported the detection and decline over time of Covid-19 antibodies in babies born to women with the coronavirus disease, according to an article published in October in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Mother-to-newborn transmission of the new coronavirus is rare, doctors at the New York-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center reported in JAMA Pediatrics in October.
(Report by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore, additional report by Chen Lin; edited by Robert Birsel)
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