Coronavirus testing in women attending antenatal care

Abstract

Background Universal screening has been proposed as a strategy to identify asymptomatic individuals infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and mitigate transmission. Aim To investigate the rate of positive tests among pregnant women in Melbourne, Australia. Methods We performed a cross-sectional prevalence study at three maternity hospitals (one tertiary referral hospital and two secondary maternities) in Melbourne, Australia. SARS-CoV-2 testing was offered to all pregnant women attending face-to-face antenatal visits and to those attending the hospital with symptoms of possible coronavirus disease, between 6th and 19th of May 2020. Testing was performed by multiplex-tandem polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on combined oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs. The primary outcome was the proportion of positive SARS-CoV-2 tests. Findings SARS-CoV-2 testing was performed in 350 women, of whom 19 had symptoms of possible COVID-19. The median maternal age was 32 years (IQR 28–35 years), and the median gestational age at testing was 33 weeks and four days (IQR 28 weeks to 36 weeks and two days). All 350 tests returned negative results (p̂ = 0%, 95% CI 0–0.86%). Conclusion In a two-week period of low disease prevalence, the rate of asymptomatic coronavirus infection among pregnant women in Australia during the study period was negligible, reflecting low levels of community transmission.

Drivers and Barriers to the Adoption of Telemedicine among Persons with Chronic Health Conditions in Ghana

“…After selecting the respondents, the field officers scheduled a convenient time for them and data were collected through a face-to-face approach. The use of the face-to-face approach enabled the researchers to personally explain any ambiguities about the questions to the respondents, as that will help generate responses based on right understanding (Rolnik et al, 2020). A total of 25days were spent on data collection due to the distances between the respondents and the field assistants.…”

A Comprehensive Analysis of Maternal and Newborn Disease and Related Control for COVID-19

“…Regular entry viral screening has its merits, but such a routine will again depend on the prevalence of disease in the community [2,15,26,32,139,173,175,[279][280][281]. In one of the latter studies, the frequency of finding viral RNA in a respiratory specimen from presenting asymptomatic patients in Spain was only 0.5%, but yet overall, including known and symptomatic presentations, 8% of pregnant mothers were infected [175].…”