New York: A new study has found that coronavirus can invade and destroy the placenta, leading to stillbirths in infected women.
Though not a common syndrome for pregnant women, those with COVID-19 face a higher risk, which can be prevented or lessened through vaccination, according to the study published in Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.
Placental and autopsy tissue from 64 still-born babies and four newborns who died shortly after birth was analysed by researchers in 12 countries, AP reported.
All cases involved unvaccinated women who had contracted COVID during their pregnancy.
Previous evidence suggested that chances of stillbirth are higher than usual for COVID-infected pregnant women, particularly the Delta variant.
According to lead author Dr David Schwartz, an Atlanta pathologist, other infections like Zika virus can infiltrate the placenta and cause stillbirth, by infecting and damaging the foetus.
He and his fellow-researchers wanted to see if that was the case with stillbirths in women with COVID-19. But they found it was the placenta which was infected and extensively destroyed.
“Many of these cases had over 90 per cent of the placenta destroyed — very scary,” said Schwartz.
Placenta is an organ that forms and attaches to the womb during pregnancy and connects with umbilical cord, providing oxygen and nourishment from the mother’s bloodstream.
Researchers detected coronavirus in some foetuses, but they said evidence of suffocation in the womb pointed to placenta damage as the more likely cause of death.
The stillbirths that were studied occurred at an average of 30 weeks, whereas normal pregnancies last about 40 weeks.
It wasn’t clear whether Omicron infections also increased probability of stillbirths as the study was conducted before the highly infectious variant emerged.
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