A Case of a Newborn Baby Girl Infected with SARS-CoV-2 Due to Transplacental Viral Transmission

Majachani, Nicole; Francois, Jean Luc M.; Fernando, Ashen K.; Zuberi, Jamshed

Patient: Female, 31-year-old Final Diagnosis: COVID-19 • SARS-CoV-2 Symptoms: Asymptomatic Medication:— Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Pediatrics and Neonatology OBJECTIVE: Unusual clinical course BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly infectious virus and is responsible for the current pandemic. It mainly infects cells of the lower respiratory tract and has been linked to severe respiratory complications. Although multiple routes of transmission have been reported in the literature, there is no definitive evidence for transplacental transmission. We present a case of neonatal SARS-CoV-2 likely due to transplacental transmission. CASE REPORT: 31-year-old Hispanic woman in the final week of pregnancy developed mild respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 pneumonia and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. She had a history of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and gestational diabetes. Two days later, she gave birth to a baby girl who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the first day after birth. She was delivered via elective cesarean section adhering to a strict infection control protocol. CONCLUSIONS: This report presents a case of a 31-year-old mother with mild symptoms of COVID-19 pneumonia who was positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection and who gave birth to a baby girl who was also positive for SARS-CoV-2. This case supports the possibility of transplacental transmission of SARS-CoV-2.