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.