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COVID19 – Covid can attack the fetus. The virus is indeed capable of infecting and spreading in the human placenta, one of the first organs to form, according to the results of a study published this Thursday, November 4 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
“Thousands of infectious viral particles can be rapidly produced in the placenta”, detail the research teams of Dr. Marco Alves and Professor David Baud in a press release from the Swiss Federal Department of the Interior.
Science knew that pregnant women were 70% more likely to catch the coronavirus compared to people of the same age. But she did not know until then how the virus impacted their health and that of the baby. “This is a major advance in our understanding of Covid during pregnancy,” says Marco Alves.
The Covid multiplies by two or three the risk of death of the fetus
L’study makes it possible to once again support the danger for pregnant women of catching the Covid while “an infected mother has a risk of severe development and of being admitted to intensive care increased by 5 to 10%”, warns David Baud . The Covid also multiplies by two or three the risk of a premature childbirth and the risk of death of the fetus.
Previous studies have already pointed out the risks of contamination during pregnancy. One of them, published in theAmerican journal of Clinical Pathology in May 2020, analyzed placentas from infected women and found lesions related to poor blood circulation. In question, the ability of the coronavirus to create clots blocking blood vessels. But the findings did not mention any risk to the mother or the baby.
This new discovery, more alarmist, proves once again the importance of the vaccine for pregnant women. “The fact that the virus can infect and proliferate in the placenta demonstrates the need for women to be vaccinated,” the researchers said.
The vaccine considered all the more necessary for pregnant women
But many women are still reluctant to get vaccinated during pregnancy for fear of endangering their babies. The messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, like those produced by Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech, has however been administered to several hundred thousand pregnant women. No adverse effects or additional risks were observed.
Scientists, on the contrary, explain that it protects mother and child. The mother first, because she develops a defensive response and decreases her chances of contracting a severe form of the disease. For the fetus, then, because the antibodies developed by the mother cross the placenta and protect the child.
Pregnant women are encouraged to get vaccinated against Covid-19 “As soon as possible”, “from the first trimester” of pregnancy, recalled in July Olivier Véran, Minister of Health.
Especially since “it is likely that vaccination during pregnancy will protect the newborn against Covid-19 in the first months after birth ”, adds for Sciences and the Future, Deshayne Fell, Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Health at the University of Ottawa. An argument on which the government could rely in the midst of a campaign to raise awareness about vaccination among vulnerable groups.
See also on The HuffPost: “Science is fantastic”: Véran’s plea for the vaccine
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