Nat Commun: Direct evidence of neonatal infection with the new coronavirus from the mother.

!---- We now know that the new coronavirus is mainly transmitted through droplets and contact with the surface of contaminantsit is not clear whether other transmission pathways, such as mother-to-child transmission, occur through placenta, cervix or environmental exposurein the early hours of July 15, Beijing time, in a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of doctors at a hospital near Paris, France, reported the first confirmed case of a newborn with a new coronavirus from a motherthe study, the baby boy, born in March, suffered from brain swelling and neurological symptoms associated with neo-coronary pneumonia, but has since recoveredphoto source: Daniele De Luca, a doctor at Antoine Beclere Hospital and author of the study, said early studies had shown that the new coronavirus could be transmitted from pregnant women to fetuses, providing the first conclusive evidence"We have shown that transmission from pregnant woman to fetus through the placenta is possible in the last few weeks of pregnancy," he said" Last week, Italian researchers said 31 pregnant women hospitalized for the new coronavirus suggested the virus could spread to unborn babiesa March study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reached a similar conclusionbut the evidence is circumstantial"You need to analyze maternal blood, amniotic fluid, newborn blood, placenta, and so on," says de Luca,in an emergency, it is not easy to obtain all these samples during a pandemicthat's why people doubt it, but it's never proven" De Luca and his team collected data on the admission of a 23-year-old pregnant woman to the hospital in early Marchthe patient had a high fever (38.6 degrees C) two days before admission and was accompanied by a severe cough and a large amount of sputumdetected the new coronavirus E and S genes in blood, nasopharyngeal and vaginal swabs through real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)the pregnant woman's pregnancy was good and all ultrasounds and routine scans were normal before the new crown pneumonia was diagnosedbecause the baby is delivered by caesarean section, all potential sources of the virus are preserved intact collected amniotic fluid during the caesarean section and tested positive for both the E and S genes of the new coronavirus before the rupture of the fetal membrane researchers found that the concentration of the new coronavirus was highest in the placenta photo source: Nature Communications De Luca: "There, the virus is transmitted through the umbilical cord to the fetus and continues to develop there this is the way of transmission " babies begin to develop severe symptoms 24 hours after birth, including severe physical stiffness, impaired white blood in the brain, and extreme irritability but the symptoms begin to subside before the doctor decides on a treatment three weeks later, the newborn was almost entirely on his own three months later, his mother was out of condition "The bad news is, it did happen, and it could be happening," said de Luca, the good news is that this is very rare compared to the global population " Marian Knight, professor of maternal and child health at the University of Oxford, said that in the thousands of newborns born to mothers infected with the new coronavirus, no more than 1% or 2% of babies tested positive for the virus, and even fewer developed severe symptoms "The most important message for pregnant women remains to avoid infection by paying attention to hand washing and social distance," " other researchers say the case reveals how the virus can be transmitted from pregnant women to fetuses Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at King's College London, , commented: "This report adds to the possible mechanisms by which the virus is transferred through the placenta to the fetus but women can rest assured that pregnancy is not a significant risk factor for them or their fetuses to become infected with the new coronavirus "