Publication:

COVID-19 symptoms-does pregnancy alter the course of the disease

Background COVID-19 or corona virus 2 is a widespread pandemic taking a huge toll on the world population.it has a varied presentation in different age groups. Similarly, it has a poorer outcome in the elderly with various comorbidities and those who are immunocompromised. Though pregnancy is a relatively immunocompromised state studies have found that pregnant women have a less severe presentation. We have tried to assess this aspect of COVID-19 in pregnant women.

Methods We evaluated the records of 158 pregnant women who presented to our hospital from April 2020 till September 2020.Their symptoms at presentation were evaluated. we also noted the outcome of these pregnancies.

Results 16% of these were more than 34 weeks of period of gestation. 65.19% presented without any symptoms. 15.19% presented with fever. 10.75% presented with cough. 8.22% presented with headache. 5.69% presented with sore throat alone. 3.16% presented with breathlessness. 0.63% presented with anosmia alone, loss of taste, severe acute respiratory infection, vomiting, sore throat and breathlessness respectively. 54 patients delivered of which 7 delivered vaginally and there were 47 caesareans. Remaining patients after cure were discharged. There were 3 miscarriages. Two babies were found to be COVID-19 positive from nasopharyngeal swab taken on day 1, however this was a small number to indicate vertical transmission.

Conclusion Our study showed that a large proportion of pregnant patients presented without symptoms.it remains to be evaluated why this is so.it may provide us with clues on how to deal with disease in the general population.