Are Pregnant Women Affected by COVID-19?

There is a lot that is not discussed about coronavirus. It’s a relatively new virus that has recently emerged, and the specialists from the whole world are trying to find a treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Protection prompts that Pregnant women ought to take part in normal preventive activities to stay away from contamination like washing hands frequently and maintaining a strategic distance from individuals who are sick.

Researchers have suggested precautions against coronavirus as there is not a lot of research about it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compares the general public and pregnant women who are at higher risk for severe illness or more liable to infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that researchers have got only a little information from distributed logical reports about the susceptibility of pregnant women to COVID-19. Pregnant women experience immunologic and physiologic changes which may make them progressively vulnerable to viral respiratory infections, including COVID-19.

The medical experts believe that women, in general, may be at higher risk of mortality, severe illness or morbidity compared to the general population. As a pregnant woman this risk is even higher in some cases like Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)], viral respiratory infections, as well as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV).

Study Coronavirus and pregnancy in detail here

In the case of these infections, miscarriages and stillbirths are much likely to happen in pregnant women. Also, there are more risks of birth defects due to high fevers during the first trimester of pregnancy. But it is not confirmed yet whether this virus transmits from a mother to a baby or not.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to spread for the most part by close contact with a contaminated individual through respiratory beads. Whether a pregnant woman with COVID-19 can transmit the infection that causes COVID-19 to her hatchling or neonate by different courses of vertical transmission is not known yet. However, the virus is not observed in infants who are born to mothers with COVID-19.

CDC adds that the infection is thought to spread primarily from individual to person in those who are in close contact with each other. It spreads through respiratory beads when an infected individual hacks or sneezes. These beads can land in the mouths or noses of individuals who are close by or possibly be breathed into the lungs.

Also, COVID-19 may get by touching the surface or a thing on which virus is present and then touching the virus-infected hands to the mouth, eyes, or nose. But it is not the main cause of virus spread.

CDC is reacting to the recent events of respiratory illness brought about by a novel (new) coronavirus that was first distinguished in China and which has now been identified in right around 90 countries globally, including the United States. The virus has been named ‘SARS-CoV-2’ and the disease caused by it has been named ‘coronavirus illness 2019’ (shortened ‘COVID-19‘).

Fariha Munir