UT Southwestern Medical Center issued the following announcement.
It's tough to believe, but we are closing in on nearly a year of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 250,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19-related causes in 2020 – more than seven times the estimated 34,200 U.S. lives lost to influenza in the 2018-2019 flu season.
Throughout the pandemic, the medical community has based recommendations for pregnant patients on what we know from past respiratory illness outbreaks – and the situation looked dire.
During the 2009 H1H1 flu outbreak, pregnant patients accounted for approximately 1% of infections but 5% of the total deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Preliminary CDC data suggested that COVID-19 would be no different, with potential for increased risks for ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and preterm birth among patients diagnosed with the virus.
Up to now, most COVID-19 data related to pregnancy have come from hospitalized patients with severe illness. But a six-month study at UT Southwestern, published on the JAMA Network, is the first to examine outcomes of noninfected pregnant patients compared with those who had asymptomatic, mild, and severe cases of COVID-19.
Our study included 3,374 pregnant patients – 75% Latina, 18% black, and 4% white – who delivered at Parkland Health between March 18 and Aug. 22. Of these patients, 252 tested positive for COVID-19 at some point during their pregnancy and 3122 tested negative. (The higher frequency among Hispanic women in our study is consistent with data on racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 cases reported in the Dallas area and nationwide.)
Because we included mild and negative cases, our data are more reflective of community spread. We found that most pregnant patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 did not experience severe symptoms and were never hospitalized, and they were not at increased risk for obstetric complications.
Now, as we approach winter, women who had COVID-19 early in pregnancy are preparing to deliver their babies. Data from their pregnancy outcomes will give us more information about how the virus affects an entire pregnancy through the baby's first days as a newborn. Using this information, we can further refine our recommendations to prevent and treat infection during pregnancy.
In that spirit, we want to take a moment to provide up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 and pregnancy – and what pregnant women should know as we enter the 2020 flu season.
Original source can be found here.
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