Good News: Monkeypox-Infected Woman Delivers Healthy Baby

New York: At a time when monkeypox has spread to 78 countries, and counting, there was a reassuring news concerning the virus which has affected over 18,000 humans all over the world.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informed that a pregnant woman infected with monkeypox has delivered a healthy baby in the US.

The baby was delivered safely and both are doing well, CBS news reported.

“There has been a case of a pregnant woman who delivered,” CDC’s John Brooks told a webinar hosted by the Infectious Disease Society of America.

It’s all the more reassuring as CDC warned earlier that pregnant women are “at especially increased risk for severe outcomes” from monkeypox.

Officials said the newborn was given an infusion of immune globulin, which is an antibody treatment.

“That neonate received the IG prophylactically. And both mom and baby are doing well,” CDC’s Brett Petersen said during the webinar.

He added that the baby doesn’t not appear to have contracted the disease from the mother during the pregnancy.

This is the first case of monkeypox being detected in a pregnant woman during the latest outbreak. During previous outbreaks of the virus, particularly in Africa, there were reports of it spreading in pregnant women with severe outcomes.

According to a Lancet report last month, four pregnant women from Congo had contracted monkeypox between 2007 and 2011, of whom two had early miscarriages, and one had a second-trimester loss after 18 weeks.