Severe Covid-19 risk lower earlier in pregnancy, Chinese study finds
- Pregnant women with the coronavirus fared worse in third trimester, researchers say
- Special attention should be given to patients in this stage, they say
Researchers at the National Clinical Research Centre on Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing assessed 138 pregnant women who came down with Covid-19 in early 2020 to fill what they said was a gap in data on how the disease affects this potentially at-risk group.
“Special attention must be paid to patients infected with Sars-CoV-2 in late pregnancy since the risk of severe illness among them seems higher than that of patients infected in the early stage,” Qiao Jie and co-authors wrote in a paper published on the preprint server medRxiv on Saturday. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
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The Chinese study found that pregnancy did not put the women evaluated at a greater overall risk for severe Covid-19, and patients infected with Sars-CoV-2 in early pregnancy were even at lower risk of severe illness than those infected in the late stages.
Of the 138 pregnant women evaluated in the Chinese study, 17 cases were severe and one woman died. Thirteen of the severe cases and the fatality were among women in their third trimester. Four severe cases were in women in their second trimester and none were women in their first.
A higher proportion of pregnant patients in late pregnancy also needed oxygen or ventilation as compared to those in early pregnancy, according to the researchers.
Differing physical conditions in women in late pregnancy could “have an important role in the clinical course of Sars-CoV-2 infection”, they said.