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Gac Med Mex 2022 ;158(2):69-77

Institute of Health Sciences, Universidad Veracruzana.

Introduction: In pregnant women, a higher risk for developing viral respiratory infections is identified.

Objective: To analyze sociodemographic characteristics, evolution, clinical manifestations, and complications of pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19.

Methods: Study conducted at 11 public hospitals; sociodemographic variables, comorbidities, signs and symptoms, laboratory and imaging findings, pregnancy characteristics, treatment and pregnancy outcome were included for analysis. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2022 Jun 24;101(25):e29488. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Faculdade de Medicina de Jundiaí, Departamento de Pediatria, Jundiaí, SP, Brazil.

Abstract: The Hammersmith infant neurological examination (HINE) is a highly predictive tool for the easy and low-cost detection of cerebral palsy. Between 2015 and 2016, the rapid spread of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in Brazil was responsible for an increase in microcephaly cases. This study aimed to verify the accuracy of the HINE for the early detection of neurological problems in Brazilian babies exposed to ZIKV. Read More

Infect Dis Obstet Gynecol 2022 17;2022:7930567. Epub 2022 Jun 17.

School of Clinical Medicine Laboratory, College of Health Science, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

There is a lack of data on the burden of and among human immunodeficiency virus- (HIV-) infected pregnant women in South Africa. We conducted a cross-sectional study which included 385 HIV-infected pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban, South Africa. The women provided vaginal swabs which were tested for and . Read More

Syst Rev 2022 Jun 27;11(1):131. Epub 2022 Jun 27.

Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, École de Santé Publique de Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids from infected individuals. Transmission of CMV in households, particularly those with young children, contributes significantly to CMV infection in the general population. However, little is known about the contribution of occupational healthcare or childcare exposure to risk of CMV infection. Read More

Comput Biol Med 2022 Jul 17;146:105623. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Craiova, Craiova, 200585, Romania. Electronic address:

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we practice medicine. Cancer patient and obstetric care landscapes have been distorted. Delaying cancer diagnosis or maternal-fetal monitoring increased the number of preventable deaths or pregnancy complications. Read More

BMJ Glob Health 2022 Jun;7(Suppl 3)

Department of Science, Information and Dissemination, WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Cairo, Egypt.

Health research, innovation and knowledge management remain major priorities of the WHO's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) supports priority research initiatives that address gaps in current knowledge regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a specific call for proposals, 122 research proposals were received and reviewed in 2020, of which 17 were recommended for funding from eight countries. Read More

Womens Health (Lond) 2022 Jan-Dec;18:17455057221103993

Ghent University International Centre for Reproductive Health, Ghent, Belgium.

Objectives: To explore whether community health worker household-based maternal health visits improve antenatal care and skilled birth attendance among hard-to-reach fishing villages on Lake Victoria, Uganda.

Methods: This quasi-experimental 18-month prospective study involved 486 consenting women aged 15-49 years, who were pregnant or had a pregnancy outcome in the past 6 months, from 6 island fishing communities. The community health worker household-based intervention (community health workers' household visits to provide counseling, blood pressure measurement, anemia, and HIV testing) involved 243 women from three fishing communities. Read More

Front Public Health 2022 7;10:913507. Epub 2022 Jun 7.

School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

Viruses 2022 Jun 18;14(6). Epub 2022 Jun 18.

Section of Pathology, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO), University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70124 Bari, Italy.

(1) Background: As the pandemic months progress, more and more evidence shows that the placenta acts as a "barrier" to SARS-CoV-2, although rare cases of vertical transmission have been described. (2) Methods: In an attempt to investigate whether the symptoms' severity was related to different placental histological characteristics and the immune microenvironment, we subdivided 29 placentas from 29 mothers positive for SARS-CoV-2 into two groups, depending on the symptomatology (moderate/severe vs. asymptomatic/mild), performing immunohistochemical investigations for CD4 + and CD8 + T lymphocytes, as well as for CD68 + macrophage. Read More

Viruses 2022 Jun 16;14(6). Epub 2022 Jun 16.

Center for Food Animal Health, Department of Animal Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44691, USA.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), causing up to 100% mortality in neonatal pigs, is a highly contagious enteric disease caused by PED virus (PEDV). The highly virulent genogroup 2 (G2) PEDV emerged in 2010 and has caused huge economic losses to the pork industry globally. It was first reported in the US in 2013, caused country-wide outbreaks, and posed tremendous hardship for many pork producers in 2013-2014. Read More

Viruses 2022 May 27;14(6). Epub 2022 May 27.

Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Division of Microbiology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo 173-8610, Japan.

We recently published an article about myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-independent rubella infection of keratinocytes in vitro, in which first-trimester trophoblast cells were shown as rubella virus (RuV)-resistant. Given an incident rate as high as 90% of congenital rubella syndrome in the first eight weeks of pregnancy, the RuV infection of first-trimester trophoblasts is considered key to opening the gate to transplacental transmission mechanisms. Therefore, with this study, we aimed to verify the susceptibility/resistance of first-trimester trophoblast cell lines, HTR-8/SVneo and Swan. Read More

Nutrients 2022 Jun 18;14(12). Epub 2022 Jun 18.

Department of Biomedical and Dental Science and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy.

The immune system is highly dynamic and susceptible to many alterations throughout pregnancy. Since December 2019, a pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has swept the globe. To contain the spread of COVID-19, immediate measures such as quarantine and isolation were implemented. Read More

Nutrients 2022 Jun 17;14(12). Epub 2022 Jun 17.

Institute for Cell Analysis, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China.

Despite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding and the World Health Organization's breastfeeding recommendations for COVID-19 infected mothers, whether these mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed is under debate due to concern about the risk of virus transmission and lack of evidence of breastmilk's protective effects against the virus. Here, we provide a molecular basis for the breastfeeding recommendation through mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics and glycosylation analysis of immune-related proteins in both colostrum and mature breastmilk collected from COVID-19 patients and healthy donors. The total protein amounts in the COVID-19 colostrum group were significantly higher than in the control group. Read More

Medicina (Kaunas) 2022 Jun 20;58(6). Epub 2022 Jun 20.

Department of Emergency Medical Service, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-367 Wroclaw, Poland.

COVID-19 is a pandemic disease, and its unpredictable outcome makes it particularly dangerous, especially for pregnant women. One of the decisions they have to make is where they will give birth. This study aimed to determine the factors influencing the choice of place of delivery and the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on these factors. Read More

Medicina (Kaunas) 2022 May 26;58(6). Epub 2022 May 26.

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, 300041 Timisoara, Romania.

: Neonatal mortality is a global public health issue, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income nations. Although Romania is a high-income nation, according to the European Union's most recent demographic data, it had the second-highest infant death rate in 2019. Although significant progress has been made in the last three decades in lowering newborn mortality, more initiatives to accelerate progress are required to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) objective. Read More

Int J Mol Sci 2022 Jun 7;23(12). Epub 2022 Jun 7.

School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Chaminade University of Honolulu, Honolulu, HI 96816, USA.

The receptor of advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is a receptor that is thought to be a key driver of inflammation in pregnancy, SARS-CoV-2, and also in the comorbidities that are known to aggravate these afflictions. In addition to this, vulnerable populations are particularly susceptible to the negative health outcomes when these afflictions are experienced in concert. RAGE binds a number of ligands produced by tissue damage and cellular stress, and its activation triggers the proinflammatory transcription factor Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-κB), with the subsequent generation of key proinflammatory cytokines. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 19;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 19.

Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea.

Pregnancy during the pandemic may be a stressful life event. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the actor and partner effects of the fear of COVID-19, depression, posttraumatic growth, and marital adjustment on the health promotion behaviors of pregnant couples during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea. Data were collected from 123 pregnant couples using a structured questionnaire. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 18;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 18.

Department of Nursing, Universitat Jaume I, Avenida de Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain.

Becoming parents during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a challenge. The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of the pandemic on new and expectant parents in both Italy and Spain. A descriptive qualitative study was carried out by collecting social media posts written by parents between March 2020 and April 2021. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 14;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 14.

ISGlobal, Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, 132 Rosselló Street, 08036 Barcelona, Spain.

Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy is a cause of pregnancy loss and multiple clinical and neurological anomalies in children. This systematic review aimed to assess the effect of ZIKV exposure in utero on the long-term neurodevelopment of normocephalic children born to women with ZIKV infection in pregnancy. This review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 14;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 14.

Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian 16150, Malaysia.

A reliable estimate of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies is increasingly important to track the spread of infection and define the true burden of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic review and a meta-analysis were conducted with the objective of estimating the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Africa. A systematic search of the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar electronic databases was conducted. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 10;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 10.

Vaccines Research Department, Fundación Para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana (Fisabio), Av. de Catalunya, 21, 46020 Valencia, Spain.

Post-marketing safety surveillance of new vaccines aimed to be administered during pregnancy is crucial to orchestrate efficient adverse events evaluation. This is of special relevance in the current landscape of new vaccines being introduced in the pregnant women population, and particularly due to the recent administration of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women. This multi-center prospective cohort study, nested within the WHO-Global Vaccine Safety-MCC study, involved two hospitals in the Valencia region. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 10;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 10.

Trauma Research Consortium, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, Department of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75246, USA.

Most studies of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care workers (HCWs) have been descriptive, few have tested models to predict hesitancy, and none have examined the possible relationship between HCWs' distress and vaccine hesitancy. This study examined predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, including HCWs' distress after taking into account HCW sex, doctoral-level status, race, age, and exposure to COVID-19. Further, it examined specific reasons HCWs endorsed for their hesitancy. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022 Jun 8;19(12). Epub 2022 Jun 8.

Center for Disaster & Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center), P3H: Protect & Promote Population Health in Complex Crises, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Don Soffer Clinical Research Center Room 1507, 1120 NW 14 St., Miami, FL 33136, USA.

Russia's military incursion into Ukraine triggered the mass displacement of two-thirds of Ukrainian children and adolescents, creating a cascade of population health consequences and producing extraordinary challenges for monitoring and controlling preventable pediatric infectious diseases. From the onset of the war, infectious disease surveillance and healthcare systems were severely disrupted. Prior to the reestablishment of dependable infectious disease surveillance systems, and during the early months of the conflict, our international team of pediatricians, infectious disease specialists, and population health scientists assessed the health implications for child and adolescent populations. Read More

Diagnostics (Basel) 2022 May 28;12(6). Epub 2022 May 28.

Doctoral School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania.

Polyhydramnios is an obstetrical condition defined as a pathological increase in the amniotic fluid and is associated with a high risk of maternal-fetal complications. Common causes of polyhydramnios include fetal anatomical and genetic abnormalities, gestational diabetes mellitus, and fetal viral infections. We present the case of a 30-year-old Caucasian woman with transient polyhydramnios associated with gestational diabetes mellitus and obstetric complications. Read More

Cells 2022 06 7;11(12). Epub 2022 Jun 7.

Department of Animal Reproduction, National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain.

Bovine mesenchymal stem cells are a relevant cell population found in the maternal reproductive tract that exhibits the immunomodulation capacity required to prevent embryo rejection. The phenotypic plasticity showed by both endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (eMSC) and embryonic trophoblast through mesenchymal to epithelial transition and epithelial to mesenchymal transition, respectively, is essential for embryo implantation. Embryonic trophoblast maintains active crosstalk via EVs and soluble proteins with eMSC and peripheral blood MSC (pbMSC) to ensure the retention of eMSC in case of pregnancy and induce the chemotaxis of pbMSC, critical for successful implantation. Read More

AIDS Res Ther 2022 Jun 23;19(1):26. Epub 2022 Jun 23.

Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

We conducted a pilot trial of an intervention targeting intersectional stigma related to being pregnant and living with HIV while promoting capabilities for achieving 'respected motherhood' ('what matters most') in Botswana. A pragmatic design allocated participants to the intervention (N = 44) group and the treatment-as-usual (N = 15) group. An intent-to-treat, difference-in-difference analysis found the intervention group had significant decreases in HIV stigma (d = - 1. Read More

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2022 Jun 23;22(1):511. Epub 2022 Jun 23.

Helen Schneider Hospital for Women, Rabin Medical Center - Beilinson Hospital, 39 Jabotinsky St., Petach Tikva, Israel.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing global healthcare crisis that negatively affects pregnant women. Although patients with an acute infection during pregnancy have been widely studied, information regarding labor and delivery while infected is sparse. The aim of the study was to ascertain maternal, obstetrical, and perinatal outcomes of women who gave birth while infected with SARS-CoV-2. Read More

In Vivo 2022 Jul-Aug;36(4):1570-1579

Whipps Cross University Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, U.K.

Background/aim: During the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns regarding theoretical risks of surgery contributed to changes in clinical management to prevent contamination. We looked at the effect the pandemic had on the management of ectopic pregnancy. Our review compares published data on pre-COVID to COVID management of ectopic pregnancies and evaluates the differences where Early Pregnancy Unit (EPU) structures exist. Read More

PLoS One 2022 23;17(6):e0270181. Epub 2022 Jun 23.

Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Science, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Background: Healthcare providers (HCPs) are at an elevated occupational health risk of hepatitis B virus infections. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is one of the measures recommended to avert this risk. However, there is limited evidence of HCPs' awareness of hepatitis B PEP. Read More

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022 Jun 24;71(25):830-833. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) is a combination protease inhibitor that blocks replication of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and has been shown to reduce the risk for hospitalization and death among patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at risk for progression to severe disease* (1). In December 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for early treatment with Paxlovid among persons with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 who are at high risk for progression to severe disease (2). FDA and a small number of published case reports have documented recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms or a positive viral test result (COVID-19 rebound) 2-8 days after recovery or a negative SARS-CoV-2 test result among patients treated with Paxlovid (3-7); however, large-scale studies investigating severe illness after Paxlovid treatment are limited. Read More