A Prospective study to determine the rate of SARS-CoV-2 positivity among women admitted for delivery

ABSTRACT

Background:SARS- CoV-2 has radically influenced the health care workers, especially Obstetricians who are at high-risk COVID-19 transmission due to the nature of their specialty as a result of exposure to infectious particles, hence they have to be judg emental in taking up pregnant females. As the Obstetrical population has to go through a unique challenge during this pandemic, the aim of the study was to know the incidence of SARS- CoV-2 positivity rate in pregnant women admitted to hospital for delivery. Furthermore, infected patients may be asymptomatic on admission and may easily transmit the disease during delivery. Methods:The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee. It was conducted between Sep- tember and November 2020 at Deccan College of Medical Sciences, includes 75 pregnant women who were screened for SARS -CoV-2 positivity upon admission to the hospital for delivery. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples was performed by Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) method, targeting Screening Envelope (E) gene and Confirmatory gene RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp). Results:Out of 75 women;two (2) women had mild symptoms of fever and shortness of breath on admission respectively, on testing tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Of the other 73 women admitted without symptoms screened for SARS-CoV-2, two (2) were found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2. Although this prevalence has limited generaliza- bility to geographical regions with lower rates of infection, it underscores the risk of Covid-19 among asymptomatic obstetrical patients. [Formula presented] Conclusions:Health care professionals have to be meticulous about taking precautionary potential steps regarding COVID-19 status of the patient to determine hospital isolation practices and control measures which also includes judicious use of Personal protective equipment. Access to such clinical data from the laboratory provides an important opportunity to pro- tect mothers, babies, and health care teams during these challenging times.