Introduction
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first
reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China at the end of 2019, spread
rapidly throughout China in a few weeks and has become a global health
problem1, 2. The World Health Organization (WHO)
proclaimed the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International
Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020 and named the disease as the
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on February 12,
20201, 3. Knowledge of the epidemiological
characteristics, pathogenesis, symptoms, diagnosis, prevention and
treatment of this emerging agent have increased
rapidly4-9.
However, data on pregnant women with COVID-19 were limited and myalgia,
and no severe case of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 associated death was
reported, especially in early and middle pregnancy. A retrospective
review conducted by Chen10 et al showed that the most
common symptoms of COVID-19 in pregnant women were fever, cough and
myalgia and no severe COVID-19 or died development. But all the pregnant
women in the research were in their third trimester of pregnancy. The
maternal immune system is extremely sensitive and easily challenged by
external stimulation in early pregnancy, with effects on fetal growth
and development11, 12. Greater emphasis must be placed
on the description of pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 in early
and middle pregnancy.
The body of literature on clinical characteristics and perinatal
outcomes of women with COVID-19 during the first or second trimesters is
limited. In addition, whether SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted vertically
in utero is controversial. We retrospectively analyzed the medical
records of 25 consecutive pregnant women in different stages, and
investigated the clinical characteristics, fetal status and pregnancy
outcome.