American Journal of Perinatology Reports (Jul 2020)

In Utero Vertical Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in a Severely Ill 29-week Preterm Infant

  • Arpit Gupta,
  • Yogangi Malhotra,
  • Uday Patil,
  • Ana R. Muradas,
  • William T. Lee,
  • Florian Krammer,
  • Fatima Amanat,
  • Camille A. Clare,
  • Suja Vinod,
  • Emad Ghaly

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1715177
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 03
pp. e270 – e274

Abstract

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently in worldwide pandemic state with very limited data about the mode of transmission to the growing fetus. There are a few published cases of COVID-19 infection in the infants born to COVID-19 positive mothers where most of the reported cases were either mildly symptomatic with positive COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or had negative COVID-19 PCR raising the question of vertical transmission. We present a case of likely intrauterine transmission of COVID-19 infection in a critically ill premature infant born to a COVID-19 infected mother and describing her clinical course thus far. The clinical presentation in the infant is consistent with COVID-19 infection described so far in literature along with positive PCR, and positive COVID-19 serology: immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M, and immunoglobulin A.

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