Knowledge and practice of preventive measures against COVID-19 infection among pregnant women in a low-resource African setting

Johnbosco Ifunanya Nwafor; Joseph Kenechi Aniukwu; Bonaventure Okechukwu Anozie; Arinze Chidiebere Ikeotuonye

Emerging infections have been shown to have adverse impact on pregnant women and their fetuses as shown by recent pandemic caused by 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus and the severe fetal effects of Zika virus. 1 In December, 2019, a series of pneumonia cases of unknown cause emerged in Wuhan (Hubei, China), with clinical presentations resembling viral pneumonia. Deep sequencing analysis from lower respiratory tract samples indicated a novel coronavirus that was later named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). 2 The infection has spread to over 110 countries including Nigeria prompting World health organization to declare it a pandemic on March 11, 2020. 3 Globally, as of April 15, 2020, there have been 1,914,916 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 123,010 deaths, reported by WHO. 3 Nigeria Centre for Disease Control announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus disease in Nigeria on February 27, 2020 and since then many confirmed cases have been reported in many States across the country. 4 Early efforts have focused on describing the clinical characteristics and outcomes of Covid-19 in the general population. 5 However, the disease appears to be particularly impactful in special populations that include those older than 65 years of age. 6 Pregnant women are also considered to be a special population group because of the unique 'immune suppression' caused by pregnancy. 7 The immunologic and physiologic changes of pregnancy might make pregnant women at higher risk of severe illness or mortality with Covid-19, compared with the general public. 6, 7 However, there is little information on Covid-19 infection during pregnancy. [7] [8] [9] There are limited case series reporting the impact on women affected by coronaviruses (CoV) during pregnancy. 1, 2, 6 In women affected by other coronavirus infections such as . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.