NYMC Faculty Publications

in Utero Vertical Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in a Severely Ill 29-Week Preterm Infant

Arpit Gupta, New York Medical College
Yogangi Malhotra
Uday Patil
Ana R. Muradas
William T. Lee
Florian Krammer
Fatima Amanat
Camille A. Clare, New York Medical College
Suja Vinod, New York Medical College
Emad Ghaly, New York Medical College

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently in worldwide pandemic state with very limited data about the mode of transmission to the growing fetus. There are a few published cases of COVID-19 infection in the infants born to COVID-19 positive mothers where most of the reported cases were either mildly symptomatic with positive COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or had negative COVID-19 PCR raising the question of vertical transmission. We present a case of likely intrauterine transmission of COVID-19 infection in a critically ill premature infant born to a COVID-19 infected mother and describing her clinical course thus far. The clinical presentation in the infant is consistent with COVID-19 infection described so far in literature along with positive PCR, and positive COVID-19 serology: immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M, and immunoglobulin A.