European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

COVID-19 POTENTIAL MATERNAL AND INFANT OUTCOMES: LESSON FROM THREE EPIDEMICS

*Pabalpreet Kaur and Dr. Jyoti Sarin

ABSTRACT

In early December 2019 a cluster of cases with pneumonia of unknown etiology was identified in Wuhan. Further investigation revealed a newly identified coronavirus, initially termed 2019-nCoV responsible for causing this infection. The infection moved rapidly through China, and spread to more than 200 countries world-wide. It is certain that 2019-nCoV will infect women who are pregnant. With physiological adaptive changes during pregnancy, pregnant women could be more susceptible to COVID-19 infection than the general population. Unfortunately, there is limited literature with coronavirus infections during pregnancy. In order to assess the potential affect of new coronavirus on maternal, fetal and neonatal morbidity and other poor obstetrical outcomes, this article reviews the published data addressing the epidemiological and clinical effects of SARS, MERS, and covid-19 infections on pregnant women and their infants.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Middle East respiratory syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, pregnancy, maternal mortality, maternal death, pregnancy complications, maternal morbidity, pneumonia, epidemic, China.