Pregnant women have COVID-19 symptoms that last longer than average, studies find

Pregnant women with COVID-19 may have symptoms that are much longer than the average patient and last for more than two months, according to a new study. It was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology on Wednesday.

Led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Los Angeles, this is the largest study to date. Pregnant women who are not hospitalized.. A quarter of the 594 women studied had COVID-19 symptoms that lasted more than two months.Non-pregnant patients who experience symptoms more than 1-2 months after a positive test are unofficial Known as a “long-distance carrier”.. “

“Pregnant people with COVID-19 are expected to take longer to develop symptoms,” said the senior author. Vanessa L. Jacoby, MD, MAS, UCSF Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences Division Research Vice-Chair, and National Pregnancy Research Co-Principal Investigator, said in a statement. “The symptoms of COVID-19 during pregnancy can last for a long time and have a significant impact on health and well-being.”

This paper is part of an ongoing study in the United States called The. Priority research (Partial acronym for Pregnancy Coronavirus Outcomes Registry). It focuses on the analysis of symptoms in women with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 during pregnancy or within 6 weeks of pregnancy. 9% of the women surveyed were black. 31 percent of the participants were Latina. In particular, 67% of women were in contact with people who had or tested positive for COVID-19. 21 percent had a history of recent travel. Healthcare workers accounted for 31 percent of women.

The study found that the most common early symptoms of pregnant women were cough, sore throat, body pain, and fever. Fifty percent of the participants had symptoms after 3 weeks of infection. Twenty-five percent were still symptomatic at 8 weeks.

“The majority of participants in our study group had mild illness and were not hospitalized,” said Yalda Afshar, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology maternal-fetal medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. , PhD. “Still, it took a median 37 days for the symptoms to relieve.”

The authors of the study noted that the prevalence of symptoms in a cohort of pregnant women differs from that of the non-pregnant population. Specifically, the prevalence of pregnant women with fever appeared to be inadequate. This is a common symptom in non-pregnant women.

“For example, in a non-pregnant population-based cohort of 1,099 patients in China, the most common symptoms are fever (43.8% on admission) compared to cough (20%) and sore throat (16). ) And cough (67.8%).%) As the most common first symptom in our cohort, fever is found in only 12% of the population, “says the study author. “One week after the onset of symptoms in PRIORITY participants who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, cough (41%) and malaise (33%) were widespread, but fever remained rare (5). %). ”

This study continues to form the theory that pregnant patients “have different clinical symptoms and morbidity of COVID-19 compared to the non-pregnant population.”

“This predominantly outpatient symptom of pregnant patients shows a lower prevalence of fever and a higher incidence of fatigue, body pain and headache, unlike the symptoms of the non-pregnant population. “The author writes. “Pregnancy also causes patients with COVID-19 to have a long course of illness, with 25% of patients exhibiting symptoms that persist for more than 8 weeks after onset.”

There is still much unknown about COVID-19 and how it affects the pregnant population, but researchers hope that these results can give better information to clinicians.

“Despite the potential risk of COVID-19 to pregnant people and their newborns, there is a large gap in our knowledge of the course of the disease and the overall prognosis,” Afshar said. “Our results help pregnant people and their clinicians better understand what they expect from COVID-19 infection.”