Nearly a third of coronavirus infections in newborn babies are picked up in the womb or from the mother during labour, a review of reported cases has found.
While Covid-19 is rare in newborns, doctors have been keen to understand the potential risks that babies face should tests reveal they have the infection soon after birth.
Doctors in France examined 176 published cases of neonatal coronavirus infections in which the infants tested positive at least once or were found to have antibodies against the virus.
Most of the babies, about 70%, were infected in hospital where the mother, medical staff, other patients, family members and visitors all posed a potential infection risk. The rest of the infections were passed on directly from the mother before or during birth.
Daniele De Luca, medical director of paediatrics and neonatal critical care at the Antoine Béclère hospital in Paris, said that despite being rare, it was important for doctors to be aware that newborns can be born with the virus or contract it while in hospital. “At the beginning of the pandemic, some argued that this would never touch babies. It’s rare, but it does exist,” he said.
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