Document Type : Editorial

Author

Health Policy Research Center, Institute of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Transmission of viral infections from mother to fetus is an important issue as it can affect both the maternal and neonatal pregnancy outcomes. The world is currently struggling with COVID-19 which has affected all countries regardless of their economic status. There exist similarities between the genetics of COVID-19 and other members of Coronavirus family, including SARS and MERS (1); therefore, it has been supposed that similar to SARS and MERS (2), COVID-19 has no vertical transmission (3). However, two systematic review studies provided some evidence which pointed to the contrary (4, 5). In a meta-analysis conducted by Kotlyar and colleagues the risk of vertical transmission from the infected mother to her baby was reported to be about 3.2% (5). This report is very important to healthcare systems as certain protocols have to be considered in screening babies born of infected mothers. Furthermore, there are still many questionable issues surrounding the behavior of agile COVID-19.

Keywords

1. Rasmussen SA, Smulian JC, Lednicky JA, Wen TS, Jamieson DJ. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pregnancy: what obstetricians need to know. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2020;222(5):415-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.02.017. PubMed PMID: 32105680; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7093856.## 2. Karimi-Zarchi M, Neamatzadeh H, Dastgheib SA, Abbasi H, Mirjalili SR, Behforouz A, et al. Vertical Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) from Infected Pregnant Mothers to Neonates: A Review. Fetal and Pediatric Pathology. 2020;39(3):246-50. doi: 10.1080/15513815.2020.1747120. PubMed PMID: 32238084; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7157948. ## 3. Di Mascio D, Khalil A, Saccone G, Rizzo G, Buca D, Liberati M, et al. Outcome of Coronavirus spectrum infections (SARS, MERS, COVID 1-19) during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM. 2020:100107. doi: 10.1016/j.ajogmf.2020.100107. PubMed PMID: 32292902; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7104131. ## 4. Ashraf MA, Keshavarz P, Hosseinpour P, Erfani A, Roshanshad A, Pourdast A, et al. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Systematic Review of Pregnancy and the Possibility of Vertical Transmission. Journal of reproduction & infertility. 2020;21(3):157-68. ## 5. Kotlyar AM, Grechukhina O, Chen A, Popkhadze S, Grimshaw A, Tal O, et al. Vertical transmission of coronavirus disease 2019: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.07.049. PubMed PMID: 32739398; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7392880. ## 6. Chen H, Guo J, Wang C, Luo F, Yu X, Zhang W, et al. Clinical characteristics and intrauterine vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 infection in nine pregnant women: a retrospective review of medical records. The Lancet. 2020;395(10226):809-15. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30360-3. ## 7. Tahamtan A, Ardebili A. Real-time RT-PCR in COVID-19 detection: issues affecting the results. Taylor & Francis; 2020. doi: 10.1080/14737159.2020.1757437. PubMed PMID: 32297805; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7189409. ##