A new study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may infect a higher group of pregnant women, and when they are symptomatic, a large number of them can develop the moderate-to-severe disease.
It has been recommended by the experts that pregnant women should get vaccinated to reduce the adverse impact of Covid-19 on maternal health Covid.
A large scale report of systematically collected in their first study, the multicentre data on the clinical presentation, pregnancy outcomes and maternal deaths amongst women with coronavirus in Maharashtra and according to experts it has been observed that nearly 30 per cent of the symptomatic cases had moderate to a severe disease requiring ICU/HDU admission.
“Almost 96 per cent of the ICU/HDU admissions were due to Covid-19 and only 4 per cent were due to non- Covid-19 causes. Thus, our analysis suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may infect a higher proportion of pregnant women,” said the study.
It said there is a need for “immediate medical attention” from the healthcare system in India for the pregnant women. It also said in the Indian context the co-infections could be a greater threat to pregnant women with Covid-19.
The data of 4203 women with Covid-19 was analysed by the experts for the study. The majority of pregnant and post-partum women with coronavirus were drafted from the Mumbai metropolitan region (1684, 40%) followed by Vidarbha (1155, 27.5%), Pune (853, 20.3%), Marathwada (351, 8.4%) and Khandesh region (160, 3.8%).
The majority of women (3441, 82%) aged 18-30 year, with 92 per cent of the women being in the third trimester and the median gestational age was 38 week were analysed by the experts.
Out of 4203 women, 3865 were registered during their ongoing pregnancy and 338 were enrolled during the post-partum period.
According to the study majority (3669, 87.3%) of the pregnant and post-partum women with coronavirus were asymptomatic and only 534 (12.7%) women were symptomatic. It was also found in the study that pregnant and post-partum women above 30 years of age had “two times higher severity” of Covid-19 disease as compared to women aged less than 30 years of age.
“The study demonstrates the adverse outcomes including severe Covid-19 disease, pregnancy loss and maternal death in women with COVID-19 in Maharashtra,” it said.
Meanwhile, 3213 live births, 77 miscarriages and 834 undelivered pregnancies were revealed in the study. The proportion of pregnancy/foetal loss including stillbirths was six per cent. Five hundred and thirty-four women (13%) were symptomatic, of which 382 (72%) had mild, 112 (21%) had moderate, and 40 (7.5%) had severe disease.
A total of 158 (3.8%) pregnant and post-partum women required medical care , of which 152 (96%) were thanks to COVID-19 related complications. The most common complication was preterm delivery (528, 16.3%) and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (328, 10.1%). A total of 158 (3.8%) pregnant and post-partum women required medical care , of which 152 (96%) were thanks to COVID-19 related complications.
According to the experts higher Case deathrate (CFR) was observed in Pune (9/853, 1.1%), Marathwada (4/351, 1.1%) regions as compared to Vidarbha (9/1155, 0.8%), Mumbai Metropolitan (11/1684, 0.7%), and Khandesh (1/160, 0.6%) regions. Comorbidities of anaemia, tuberculosis and DM were related to maternal deaths.
Among severe Covid-19 cases, the most common presenting symptoms were shortness of breath (34, 85%), dry cough (23, 57.5%) and fever (22, 55%).