How Corona Affects The Fetus Even Without Infecting The Umbilical Cord

Article Update On:

May 13, 2025

Published On:

January 25, 2022

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The coronavirus pandemic, which has changed its variants for the past two years, has made all the countries of the world helpless. Today, we will be telling you about how corona affects the fetus even without infecting the umbilical cord.

Page Contents

Scientists have not yet came out with its effective treatment, although the immunity-boosting vaccine has slightly reduced the damage to human lives, but the virus is bent on putting our future generations at risk.

A new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health in the US has said that the causative virus SARS Cov-2 can affect the fetus even without infecting the umbilical cord.

It has been claimed in this study that corona may not infect the umbilical cord in pregnancy, but if the mother is infected, then its effect can cause inflammatory immune response in the fetus and infants. The outcome of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

How Study Has Performed?

This study was conducted by National Institute of Health studied on 23 pregnant women at the limited level, out of which 12 women were Covid positive, while 8 women were asymptomatic, who did not have a single symptom of corona.⁽¹⁾

One woman had mild symptoms and the condition of three were severe. The researchers compared the immune responses between the mother and the baby by comparing maternal blood and cord blood after delivery.

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Outcome of The Study.

As per the findings of the study, the virus-borne inflammatory immune response was seen in the mother, her infant and the tissues of the umbilical cord.

It didn’t matter if the mother had symptoms of the infection or not. In pregnant women infected with SARS CoV-2, the anti-viral response to the immune cell (also known as T cell) was low. Infected mothers who did not have symptoms of the infection, antibodies against the virus were also developed.

Some of these antibodies were also found in the umbilical cord blood. It was also found that high levels of immune active markers (cytokines) were found in the infected mothers, which had nothing to do with the symptoms present. The cytokine contained interleukin 8, interleukin 10 and interleukin 15.

A high level of interleukin 8 was found in the child born from unsignified mothers. Despite the absence of the virus in the umbilical cord, the proportion of immune cell types in infected mothers were changed.

A change in the immune function of the blood of the umbilical cord of the baby of the infected mothers has been observed.

It has been shown that in infected mothers, the umbilical cord may not have been infected during pregnancy, but the immune system of the infants has been affected by it. So, Corona affects the fetus even without infecting the umbilical cord.

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Maternal and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality Among Pregnant Women With and Without COVID-19 Infection; https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2779182