📖 Coronavirus can destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths
❦ ‘Researchers in 12 countries, including the United States, analyzed placental and autopsy tissue from 64 stillbirths and four newborns who died shortly after birth.
The cases all involved unvaccinated women who had COVID-19 during their pregnancy.
The study bolsters evidence from small case reports and confirms that placenta damage – rather than an infection of the fetus – is the likely cause of many COVID-19-related stillbirths.
Previous evidence suggests the chances of stillbirth are higher than usual for pregnant women with COVID-19, particularly if infected with the Delta variant.
Vaccination recommendations include pregnant women and note their higher risk for complications when infected.
Dr. David Schwartz, an Atlanta pathologist who led the study, said other infections can infiltrate the placenta and cause stillbirth, typically by infecting and damaging the fetus. (A recent example of this is the Zika virus.)
Schwartz and his colleagues wanted to see if that was the case with stillbirths in women with COVID-19.
But what they found was almost the opposite: it was the placenta that was infected and extensively destroyed.
"Many of these cases had over 90% of the placenta destroyed – very scary," said Schwartz.
Normal placenta tissue is a healthy reddish hue and spongy. The specimens they studied were stiff, with dark discolorations of dead tissue.
While other infections can sometimes damage the placenta, Schwartz said he’d never seen them cause such consistent, extensive destruction.’
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📖 (10 Feb 2022 ~ AP / Los Angeles Times) Coronavirus can destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths ➤
📖 (10 Feb 2022 ~ Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine) Placental Tissue Destruction and Insufficiency From COVID-19 Causes Stillbirth and Neonatal Death From Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury: A Study of 68 Cases With SARS-CoV-2 Placentitis From 12 Countries ➤
© 2022 Lindsey Tanner / AP / LA Times.
📖 (10 Feb 2022 ~ AP / Los Angeles Times) Coronavirus can destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths ➤
📖 (10 Feb 2022 ~ Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine) Placental Tissue Destruction and Insufficiency From COVID-19 Causes Stillbirth and Neonatal Death From Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury: A Study of 68 Cases With SARS-CoV-2 Placentitis From 12 Countries ➤
© 2022 Lindsey Tanner / AP / LA Times.
