A baby girl born with Covid-19 is believed to have caught the virus in the womb, doctors have claimed.

The newborn, from Texas, arrived three weeks prematurely and was taken straight to intensive care after her mother was diagnosed with coronavirus. Medics say she had suffered breathing problems and a high fever, and eventually tested positive for the virus at just one day old.

Scientists then analysed the baby’s placenta and found traces of the virus as well as inflammation. They now say her birth has provided the ‘strongest evidence yet’ that the virus can be transferred to babies while they’re still in the womb.

Previously experts were only able to say that the transmission of the virus through the placenta could not be ‘ruled out’. Research into this began at the start of the pandemic, but it can be difficult to assess whether a baby has been born with the virus or picked it up in the hospital.

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Dr Amanda Evans, of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, wrote in a study published in The Paediatric Infectious Disease Journal: ‘Numerous infants have now been delivered to pregnant women diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2, with the majority of these infants without respiratory illness or positive molecular evidence for SARS-CoV-2. 

‘Our study is the first to document intrauterine transmission of the infection during pregnancy, based on immunohistochemical and ultrastructural evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the foetal cells of the placenta.’ 

The baby was born at 34 weeks gestation because her mother had premature rupture of membranes (PROM), which causes around 40% of pre-term births. It is not clear whether this was connected to the virus.

At first the newborn appeared to be healthy, but over the next few days in the neonatal intensive care unit her vitals changed. It was considered unlikely that her respiratory difficulties would be as a result of her being born prematurely.

After testing positive for the virus, she was given supplemental oxygen for several days but doctors noted that she did not need mechanical ventilation. She underwent continuous tests for the virus, which remained positive for up to 14 days.

At 21 days both the baby and her mother were allowed to leave the hospital in a good condition.

In examining the placenta, scientists found specific coronavirus proteins in the cells and tissue inflammation. The potential for a virus to pass from mother to baby in the womb is known as ‘utero transmission’.

Dr Evans said: ‘We wanted to be very careful of our interpretation of this data, but now is an even more important time for pregnant women to protect themselves from Covid-19.’

The report, led by Dr Julide Sisman, detailed two other cases of ‘vertical transmission’ of the coronavirus, which is when the infection would pass to the baby immediately before or after birth and not in the womb

The authors said it is difficult to determine at which point a baby with the coronavirus picked it up, but the new research is the ‘strongest evidence to date’ that ‘strongest evidence to date’, journal publishers Wolters Kluwer said.

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