All-cause mortality higher for infants born to women with SARS-CoV-2 infection \u226414 days versus >14 days before delivery<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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TUESDAY, Nov. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) — The incidence rates of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, hospitalization, and mortality are low for infants exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy, according to a study published online Nov. 1 in Pediatrics<\/em>.<\/p>\n Lucas Gosdin, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Emergency Response in Atlanta, and colleagues describe weighted estimates of infant outcomes from birth through age 6 months using a cohort of liveborn infants from pregnancies with SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020 from 10 U.S. jurisdictions.<\/p>\n The researchers found that 1.0, 19.1, and 80.0 percent of the 6,601 exposed infants tested positive, tested negative, and were not known to be tested for SARS-CoV-2, respectively. SARS-CoV-2 infection among those \u00e2\u0089\u00a414 days of age occurred only with maternal infection \u00e2\u0089\u00a414 days before delivery. Breastmilk feeding initiation was lower when maternal infection occurred \u00e2\u0089\u00a414 versus >14 days before delivery among 3,967 infants with medical record abstraction (77.6 versus 88.3 percent). All-cause hospitalization was 4.1 percent at six months. Infants born to women with infection \u00e2\u0089\u00a414 days before delivery had higher all-cause mortality than those born to women with infection >14 days before delivery (1.0 versus 0.3 percent).<\/p>\n “Despite the lack of an association with poor infant health outcomes, COVID-19 may pose a larger threat to infants through more immediate impacts of severe disease experienced by pregnant people and preterm birth,” the authors write. “Given a lack of vaccination and treatment options available to infants, strategies to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection throughout pregnancy and postpartum should be implemented.”<\/p>\n