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Project

Assessment and follow-up of SARS-Cov-2 infection in pregnant women and neonates.

The current coronavirus pandemic affects us all. As with all infections, certain subpopulations are morevulnerable to severe disease and even death and require therefore more research. In this pandemic,the elderly and immunologically fragile people are more prone to severe disease. Pregnant women andvery young infants are traditionally also considered as immunologically different from the generalpopulation, certainly in view of infectious diseases. Since little to nothing is known to the scientificworld of this new virus, researchers and health care personnel dealing with pregnant women and theirneonates do have concerns on the risk they run.This project offers a unique opportunity to map the impact of the current pandemic in a vulnerablesubpopulation of the society. The main objective of the project is to quantify the impact of the SARSCoV-2 pandemic in pregnant women and their newborns/infants by assessing the rate of transmission,the overall health, mental well-being, immunological responses and clinical outcomes of clinicallysuspectedand laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections in pregnant women and their neonates. Datawill be collected through online questionnaires that will be send to pregnant women at a 2 weekinterval until 8 weeks postpartum. This will enables us to monitor possible COVID-19 infections inpregnancy and to look at possible adverse outcomes in pregnant women, fetuses and neonates. At 12months postpartum, women will be contacted again to look at possible long-term consequences ofCOVID-19 infections in pregnancy on infants. Additionally, pregnant women participating in thesurveillance study will be asked to provide maternal and cord blood samples at delivery to measure theprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in pregnant women and newborns and to measure thetransplacental transfer of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies from mother to infant during pregnancy.Data from this project will be used to formulate evidence-based recommendations on prevention,treatment and vaccination for COVID-19 in pregnant women and neonates. Additionally, this projectwill provide information for policy makers and experts in the field on public health measures andmanagement of pregnant women and neonates during this pandemic.
Date:1 Jul 2020 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:VACCINOLOGY, MATERNAL ANTIBODIES
Disciplines:Infectious diseases