COVID-19 1st mother-child vertical transmission case in Pune

    Pune, Jul 28 (PTI) The Sassoon General Hospital here
in Maharashtra has claimed to have reported the country's
first case of 'vertical transmission' of the coronavirus
infection from a mother to her child through the placenta.
    Vertical transmission takes place when the baby is in
the uterus. If the mother is 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 your growing baby.
    Explaining the phenomena, Sassoon General Hospital's
paediatrics department head Dr Aarti Kinikar told PTI on
Tuesday that when a person contracts the infection, it is
mainly because of some contact with fomites. If the mother is
infected, the baby can be infected post-natally because of
breastfeeding or any other contacts.
    So, in layman's language, the baby does not have an
infection at birth, but acquires it after three to four days,
she said.
    "Whereas vertical transmission means when the baby is
in the uterus itself and the mother has an infection, (she may
be) either symptomatic or asymptomatic,and she can transfer
the infection through the placenta to the baby," she said.
    Dr Kinikar said in the present case, which was quite
challenging for them, the woman had symptoms for a week before
her delivery.
    "Since the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has made it mandatory to test all pregnant women, the woman
here was tested but her reports were negative," she said.
    After the baby girl's birth, swabs of the child's
nose, the umbilical cord and placenta were tested and the
reports came out positive, she said.
    "The baby was then kept in a separate ward. After two
to three days of birth, the baby also developed strong
symptoms like fever and there were signs of cytokine storm,
suggesting severe inflammation," said Dr Kinikar.
    A cytokine storm is a physiological reaction in which
the immune system causes an uncontrolled and excessive release
of pro-inflammatory signalling molecules called cytokines.
    Dr Kinikar said the baby girl was kept in intensive
care and after two weeks, she settled down andrecovered. Both
the mother and the child have been discharged.
    "During the investigation, it was confirmed that it
was a vertical transmission. We waited for three weeks and
tested the blood samples of both the mother and child for
antibody response," Dr Kinikar said.
    Both had developed antibodies, she said, adding that
while the antibodies were high in the mother, the baby had
less.
    Dr Kinikar said this was a very challenging case for
them. "The baby developed a severe coronavirus infection and
it required a lot of attention and efforts to successfully
treat the baby."
    She said they are in the process of documenting the
case in a reputed international journal.
    Sassoon General Hospital's Dean Dr Murlidhar Tambe
claimed this is the first case of vertical transmission of
coronavirus infection in India.
    "I congratulate the doctors who worked hard to treat
the mother and the baby," he said.
    The baby was born at the hospital in the last week of
May. Both the child and her mother were discharged three weeks
later, another hospital official said. PTI SPK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)