A quarter of pregnant women who catch coronavirus have symptoms for two months or MORE, study finds
- Researchers followed nearly 600 women who were diagnosed with coronavirus during their pregnancy
- The most common symptom was fever, followed by cough and a sore throat
- Only 6% of expecting mothers said their first symptom of COVID-19 was the loss of taste and smell
- About half still had symptoms after three weeks and one-quarter still had symptoms after eight weeks
Pregnant women who contract the novel coronavirus have symptoms for several months, a new study reveals.
Researchers found that half of expectant mothers with COVID-19 still had a cough, a sore throat and body aches after three weeks and one-quarter did after eight weeks.
What’s more, less than 10 percent of women reported a loss of taste and smell.
The team, from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), said the findings can help pregnant women and their doctors better understand what to expect if they are infected with COVID-19.
A new study, from UCSF and UCLA, found that half of expectant mothers with COVID-19 still had symptoms after three weeks and one-quarter had symptoms after eight weeks (file image)
‘We found that pregnant people with COVID-19 can expect a prolonged time with symptoms,’ said senior author DrVanessa Jacoby, vice chair of research in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF.
‘COVID-19 symptoms during pregnancy can last a long time, and have a significant impact on health and wellbeing.’
Previous studies on coronavirus infection in pregnant women have primarily looked at hospitalized patients.
However, the new analysis examined those seeking outpatient care, who make up the most adult cases of the virus.
The PRIORITY study, short for Pregnancy CoRonavIrus Outcomes RegIsTrY, looks at women in the US who are pregnant or have given birth less than six weeks prior with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19.
The team followed 594 women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus during the course of their pregnancies between March 22 and July 10.
Nearly one-third of the percent of the participants were Latina and almost 10 percent were black.
The findings, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, found several common symptoms of COVID-19, but some that overlapped with signs of normal pregnancy.
Fever was the most common symptom with 43 percent of non-pregnant hospitalized patients reporting elevated body temperatures.
About 20 percent said their first symptom was a cough, 16 percent reported it was a sore throat and 12 percent said it was body aches.
Only six percent of women said their first symptom was loos of taste or smel.
About 60 percent of women had no symptoms after being sick for four weeks, but 25 percent had symptoms lasting eight or more weeks;
‘The majority of participants in our study population had mild disease and were not hospitalized,’ said first author Dr Yalda Afshar, an assistant professor in-Residence of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at UCLA.
‘Even so, it took a median of 37 days for symptoms to ease. Despite the potential risks of COVID-19 for pregnant people and their newborns, there are large gaps in our knowledge on the course of the disease and the overall prognosis.
‘Our results can help pregnant people and their clinicians better understand what to expect with COVID-19 infection.’