Two pregnant mothers passed COVID-19 to their unborn children, and the infection led to brain damage in a recent study.

The University of Miami Health System issued a press release on Wednesday to report two cases of babies born with brain damage after their mothers contracted SARS-CoV-2 while pregnant.

In line with university researchers, each cases showed that the disease reached the placenta and caused damage to the brains of the babies.

The 2 infants tested negative for the novel coronavirus upon birth. Nonetheless, that they had significantly elevated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies of their blood. This might mean the virus penetrated the placenta or the antibodies crossed the temporary organ.

The damage was observed within the small head sizes of the infants and developmental delays. Additionally they experienced seizures. Certainly one of them died at 13 months.

“Many ladies are affected by COVID-19 while pregnant, but to see these sorts of problems of their infants at birth was clearly unusual,” Shahnaz Duara, M.D., a professor of pediatrics on the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said within the press release.

The case study was the primary to substantiate cross-placental transmission of the COVID-19 virus resulting in brain injury in newborn babies.

“We’re trying to grasp what made these two pregnancies different, so we are able to direct research towards protecting vulnerable babies,” Duara, the senior writer of the study published within the journal Pediatrics, added.

The team studied the brain of the deceased infant and located evidence suggesting that the mother can have had a SARS-CoV-2 infection in the course of the second trimester, which affected the fetal brain.

“The demonstration of SARS-CoV-2 within the deceased infant’s brain also raises the likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 infection of the fetal brain directly contributed to ongoing brain injury,” the researchers wrote.

The authors stressed that the cases were rare occurrences. Several mothers who contracted the virus during their pregnancies still delivered babies without brain development issues.

“We want to proceed our research to work out why these two babies experienced such devastating results. Once we fully understand the causes, we are able to develop probably the most appropriate interventions,” first writer Merline Benny, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics and a neonatologist, noted within the press release.

An expecting mother’s immune system can affect her baby’s brain development.
Pexels