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India reported its first ever case of vertical transmission of COVID-19, according to the BJ Medical College (BJMC) and Sassoon Hospital in Pune in the state of Maharashtra.
In its report, the BJMC has termed it as the first proven case of transplacental transmission of the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 from the umbilical cord. It was reported that the COVID-19 infection was transmitted from a pregnant woman hospitalised with her unborn child. However, after treatment, the condition of the child is now fine.
Read more: Vertical transmission of COVID-19
The claim is not yet universally accepted that the new coronavirus infection can be transmitted from a pregnant woman with COVID-19 to her foetus. However, research was being carried out over whether vertical transmission was possible between a mother and her unborn child, and recent studies were able to show that there have been instances of vertical transmission reported in a few countries. The scientific journal Nature had published reports of vertical transmission only earlier this month, where the virus was found in the placenta, in the baby's blood and in the fluid in the lungs.
It is also worth mentioning here that in the month of April, the Indian Institute of Medical Research (ICMR) issued guidelines in this regard, taking the evidence related to vertical transmission seriously. It was reported that although transplacental transmission is yet to be confirmed, new evidence surfacing suggests that a pregnant woman affected by COVID-19 can transfer the viral infection to her unborn child.
Read more: COVID-19 in newborn babies
Vertical infection is not a new term for medical experts, as infections such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and Zika virus can also be passed on from a mother to her child. But the possibility of spreading COVID-19 has emerged only recently, while the number of actual cases is negligible.
Dr. Muralidhar Tambe, dean of BJMC and Sassoon General Hospital, has said that the condition of both the child and the mother is now fine. She was required to be admitted to the ICU for three weeks, but has now fully recovered.
Aarti Kiniker, head of the Department of Pediatrics at BJMC, told media agencies that the investigation and treatment carried out by the hospital would be published in an international journal. “Our research paper has been accepted for publication by a large international magazine based in America. We received his acceptance letter last night.”
Despite the cases of transplacental transmission of COVID-19 emerging from different parts of the world, the risk of vertical transmission from mother to a newborn remains low, according to scientists and medical experts.
