If a pregnant woman is infected with Covid-19, the virus can spread through the placenta and therefore affect the fetus.
- Contamination with SARS-CoV-2 can have serious consequences for pregnant women and their babies.
- To avoid them, the best remedy remains vaccination, possible from the second trimester of pregnancy in France.
Currently, more than 51 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine against Covid-19 in France, including more than 50 million who are fully vaccinated according to the Ministry of Solidarity and Health. In France, since April 3, 2021, thes pregnant women have priority in access to mRNA vaccines from the second trimester of pregnancy, in particular if they have a pathology or if they are likely to be in contact in their professional activity with people suffering from Covid-19. 19. And the vaccination of these future mothers is a major challenge because the consequences of an infection with this virus can be serious for them as for the baby. Indeed, scientists have just proven that cells of the human placenta could be infected by SARS-CoV-2. Once inside, the virus could proliferate there and infect nearby placental cells. Their results were published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
The virus spreads through the placenta
“This is a major step forward in our understanding of Covid-19 during pregnancy.explains Marco Alves, of the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI) in Bern and one of the authors of the study. Thousands of infectious virus particles can quickly be produced in the placenta. In addition, we observed that the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor in the placenta is highly variable and specific to each pregnancy, which could explain why there is sometimes passage of the virus in the fetus.“Until now, scientists knew that a Covid-19 infection was dangerous for pregnant women and their babies, but they had failed to identify why. It is now done.
More risks for the future mother and her baby
On the other hand, the researchers specified the risks incurred by the mother and the child in the event of infection. According to them, a pregnant woman has a 5 to 10% risk in addition to having a severe course of the disease and being admitted to intensive care. On the other hand, she is also two to three times more likely to have a premature delivery and/or that the fetus dies. in utero. Last April, another study, published in the journal Medical, already estimated that pregnant women infected with Covid-19 were at greater risk of premature births and other neonatal problems than those who did not have the virus. To avoid these complications, the best remedy remains vaccination because mothers and their babies are among the most vulnerable audiences to SARS-CoV-2.
Get vaccinated to avoid complications from the virus
However, some pregnant women refuse to be vaccinated because they fear adverse effects for them or for their baby. However, previous studies have shown that the risk of complications was higher in unvaccinated pregnant women. On March 2, the National Academy of Medicine pleaded in a communicated in favor of the vaccination of pregnant women, especially if they were at risk. According to them, “a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of more than 450,000 women with symptomatic Covid-19 shows that the rate of intensive care unit admission, invasive ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and death is higher in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women of childbearing age. Arguments in favor of vaccination to protect pregnant women and their babies.
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