First Case of Vertical Transmission of COVID 19 Detected in Pune

In a first of its kind case, the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune, Maharashtra, has claimed to have reported a vertical transmission case of COVID 19 infection from a mother to her child through the placenta.

Vertical transmission takes place when the baby is in the uterus. If a mother gets infected, the transmission of the virus takes place through the placenta – an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy and provides oxygen and nutrients to the growing baby. When a person contracts this virus, it is mainly due to some contact with fomites. If the mother is infected, the baby can also get infected post-natally because of breastfeeding or any other contacts. So, it is not ideally seen that the baby gets an infection at birth but in most of cases, it occurs after three to four days.

The baby, in this case, got infected at birth and the symptoms became stronger within a couple of days of her birth with fever and inflammation. The antibody count was also very less for the child. The mother was asymptomatic in this case when she had been tested as mandated by the ICMR but still the virus infected the child in the uterus itself.

The baby and the mother both have been treated carefully and it proved to be quite a challenging case for the doctors in the hospital.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2020