Even breastfeeding infants exposed to COVID-19 do not appear to have higher risk for infection than other children, adults in the household<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Infants whose mothers test positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tend to develop less severe symptoms than their mothers or other members of their household and may not become infected at all, according to a study published online Oct. 12 in Frontiers in Immunology<\/em>.<\/p>\n Melanie A. Martin, Ph.D., from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues collected capillary dried blood spots from 46 SARS-CoV-2-infected mothers and their infants (aged 1 to 36 months) for up to two months following maternal infection onset (COVID-positive group; 87 percent breastfeeding). Controls included 26 breastfeeding mothers with no known SARS-CoV-2 infection or exposures (breastfeeding control group) and 11 mothers who tested SARS-CoV-2-negative after experiencing symptoms or close contact exposure (COVID-negative group; 73 percent breastfeeding).<\/p>\n The researchers found that within the COVID-positive group, the mean probability of seropositivity among infant samples was lower than that of corresponding maternal samples (0.54 and 0.87, respectively, for immunoglobulin G; 0.33 and 0.85, respectively, for immunoglobulin A). The likelihood of infant infection was positively associated with the number of maternal symptoms and other household infections reported. COVID-positive mothers reported a lower incidence of COVID-19 symptoms among their infants versus for themselves and other household adults. Infants had similar polymerase chain reaction positivity rates as other household children. No COVID-negative mothers or their infants had antibody-positive results. Among the breastfeeding control group, 44 percent of mothers tested antibody positive in at least one sample, but none of their infants did.<\/p>\n Results support previous research demonstrating minimal risks to infants following maternal COVID-19 infection, including for breastfeeding infants, the authors write.<\/p>\n