key: cord-0927652-wgob5qf6
authors: Schmid, Manuel B; Fontijn, Jehudith; Ochsenbein-Kölble, Nicole; Berger, Christoph; Bassler, Dirk
title: COVID-19 in pregnant women
date: 2020-03-17
journal: Lancet Infect Dis
DOI: 10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30175-4
sha: 21f222b6c06cfa830f93d878bfd02a2228726711
doc_id: 927652
cord_uid: wgob5qf6

nan

sound foundation. In the absence of such a foundation, the medical and academic community should explain to the best of their knowledge what they know and what the knowledge gaps are, rather than trying to fill these gaps with unsound speculation.

We admit that the choice on which side to err is not an easy one if we simply do not know the risks associated with COVID-19 in pregnant women and neonates. Therefore, as long as national authority guidelines or evidencebased recommendations do not yet exist, clinical practitioners need to screen the literature and review their actions on a daily basis. We appeal to national and international disease control authorities such as CDC and WHO to improve and update their guidelines for specific patient groups, so that everyone can rely on the best data available.

We declare no competing interests. In case reports and in the largest case series on COVID-19 in children published so far, 2 three neonates and 230 children with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis are reported. There were no deaths, most patients had mild disease (including all three neonates), and severe illness was limited to patients with underlying illness.

Extrapolation from other studies of human coronavirus infections 3 gives conflicting data with no harm reported in infants born to mothers with SARS-CoV and severe adverse courses in women infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Current data suggest that vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is at least uncommon, 4,5 and the clinical course of infants born to infected mothers varies in the two publications. Serious illness was reported by Zhu and colleagues; 5 however, all of these neonates tested negative, so the cause of their illness remains unclear.

On the basis of these data, we feel that clear recommendations, as proposed in the appendix of the Correspondence by Favre and colleagues, cannot and should not be made, although we realise that during the worrisome actual situation such recommendations are very sought after. However, making recommendations that can affect a large number of people requires a facilities, as well as in response to any further updates on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.

We declare no competing interests.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection during pregnancy: report of two cases & review of the literature

Pregnancy and perinatal outcomes of women with severe acute respiratory syndrome

Clinical characteristics and intrauterine vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 infection in nine pregnant women: a retrospective review of medical records

2019-nCoV epidemic: what about pregnancies?

Zika virus infectionafter the pandemic

Geneva: World Health Organization, 2020. long-term consequences (eg, termination of pregnancy, no breastfeeding) For more on the guidelines see