Top Stories

Babies less likely to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms than mothers: Study

 


Overall, about half the infants of COVID-positive mothers developed symptoms or antibodies to COVID-19 infection.

In one of the first studies to explore how COVID-19 specifically affects older babies, researchers found that the number of people infected in a household was most closely linked to the likelihood of an infant becoming infected. Was.

According to a study, babies whose mothers test positive for COVID-19 are less likely to develop severe symptoms than their parents.

Researchers from the University of Washington and four other institutions in the western and southern United States found that the number of people infected in a household was most closely related to the likelihood of an infant being infected with the deadly virus.

And then, the researchers investigated how COVID-19 specifically affects older babies.

Melanie said, "The epidemic emphasized potential transmission risks to children during pregnancy, birth or breast-feeding, although caregivers differed about the dangers in the family to children and other young people when they became ill. There was an inquiry." Martin, assistant professor of anthropology at UW and first author of the study, which published October 12 in Frontiers in Immunology. "In comparison to other family members, babies have the most and closest contact with their caregiver. Thus we asked, how many children are at risk, and how do you protect children when they are sick? "

There is growing evidence that the antibodies produced by vaccines are passed from mother to child and protect newborns for several months after birth. According to a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, mRNA vaccines effectively produce antibodies that protect against SARS-CoV-2 in pregnant or lactating women, and this immunity is passed from mother to newborn. She goes. Placenta and breast milk.

The study analyzed survey and antibody results (taken from pin-prick blood samples) of 46 pairs of COVID-positive mothers and their infants for two months after maternal infection. The infants were at least one month old, and COVID-positive mothers were enrolled in the study within days, sometimes within hours, of receiving their positive PCR test results. The researchers also recruited a comparison group of 11 COVID-negative mothers who tested negative after exposure or symptoms, and a control group of 26 mothers with no known COVID exposure or symptoms.

Overall, about half of the babies of COVID-positive mothers developed symptoms or antibodies to COVID-19 infection. The rates of infection and symptoms in those infants were similar to those of other domestic children, but lower than those of fathers and other domestic adults. None of the COVID-negative mothers or their infants tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, including one infant who tested PCR positive. While about half of the mothers in the control group had antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2, possibly indicating a previous infection of which they were unaware, none of their infants did.

Infant age and maternal symptoms were not associated with increased risk of infection in infants of COVID-positive mothers, but families with a higher number of infected family members were more likely to have infants who tested positive.

"Infant infections were mostly related to household infections. The risk to infants was not just from their mothers, there was just transmission in the home," Martin said.

The researchers noted that the study was limited by its overall sample size, and that data relied on participants' own reports and collection of blood samples. Some are nearly impossible to assess in infants with COVID symptoms — headache, loss of smell or taste — and others, such as runny nose, common outside of COVID, the researchers noted. Parents' perceptions may differ.

The study was conducted from June 2020 to March 2021 before the vaccine became widely available, although a COVID-positive mother and some mothers in the control group received the first dose during the study. The researchers removed post-vaccination samples from their analysis, but looked at post-vaccination antibody responses in those mothers.

Almost all of the infants in the study were breastfed. While the researchers were not able to test directly for the protective effects of breastfeeding against infection, breastfed infants who were exposed to COVID were not at greater risk of infection than other children and adults in the household. In a previous paper, researchers found that milk collected from infected mothers did not contain the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Most of the milk samples had antibodies to the virus for up to two months after infection.

"Overall, exposure to COVID-19 exposed infants.

No comments: