Clinical characteristics and outcomes for pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 disease at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged health systems around the world. This study was designed to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of pregnant women with COVID-19 infection, the common clinical features at presentation and the pregnancy outcome at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria. Methods a cross-sectional analytical study of all confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection from April to September 2020. Results out of 69 suspected cases that were tested, 19 (28.4%) were confirmed with COVID-19 infection. The common presenting complaints were fever (68.4 %), cough (57.9 %), sore throat (31.6%), malaise (42.1%), loss of taste (26.3%), anosmia (21.1%), and difficulty with breathing (10.6%). In terms of treatment outcome, 57.9% delivered while 36.8% recovered with pregnancy on-going, and 1 (5.3%) maternal death. Of the 11 women who delivered, 45.4% had vaginal deliveries and 54.6 % had Caesarean section. The mean birth weight was 3.1kg and most of the neonates (81.8%) had normal Apgar scores at birth. There was 1 perinatal death from prematurity, birth asphyxia, and intrauterine growth restriction. The commonest diagnosed co-morbidity of pregnancy was preeclampsia and it was significantly associated with severe COVID-19 disease requiring oxygen supplementation (P = 0.028). Conclusion the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in pregnancy are similar to those described in the non-pregnant population. It did not seem to worsen the maternal or foetal pregnancy outcome. The occurrence of preeclampsia is significantly associated with severe COVID-19 infection requiring respiratory support.

Comparison of maternal and neonatal outcomes of COVID-19 before and after SARS-CoV-2 omicron emergence in maternity facilities in Malawi (MATSurvey): data from a national maternal surveillance platform

“… 1 However, very little is known about the impact of COVID-19 on maternal health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 Although it is likely that COVID-19 outcomes in pregnancy differ between global regions—due to differences in health-care systems, resources, and prevalence of background disease—data from low-resource settings are scarce. One of the most robust systematic reviews reporting maternal and neonatal outcomes for COVID-19 in pregnancy, updated in late May, 2022, included extremely few studies from sub-Saharan Africa or low-resource settings, despite comprising data from 435 studies.…”

Cardiovascular Complications of COVID-19 among Pregnant Women and Their Fetuses: A Systematic Review

“…Five cases, all infected by severe COVID-19, developed pre-eclampsia. Osaikhuwnomwan et al [ 40 ] described pre-eclampsia as the most common co-morbidity of pregnancy. They demonstrated that pre-eclampsia was highly related to severe COVID-19 ( p = 0.028).…”

Antepartum SARS-CoV-2 infection and adverse birth outcomes in South African women

“…Several clinical studies, analyses from national surveillance systems and systematic reviews have been published on COVID-19 in pregnant women. Nevertheless, studies evaluating the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on birth outcomes in African women are sparse, and mainly describe retrospective analyses or without contemporaneous control group of SARS-CoV-2 uninfected pregnant women [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”