What do you need to know about covid-19 and pregnancy? Authors: Nerea Maiz1,2, Berta Serrano1, Anna Suy1, Elena Carreras1,2 1 Hospital Universitari Vall d’hebron. Barcelona. Catalonia. Spain. 2 Universitat de Vic-Universitat central de Catalunya. Catalonia. Spain. The infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, was first described in the city of Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and rapidly spread to the rest of the planet. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus infection a pandemic in March 2020. A progressive accumulation of scientific evidence since the beginning of the pandemic has tried to determine the effect of this new disease on pregnancy and the influence of pregnancy in the course of the disease. How do normal changes in gestation influence in SARS-CoV-2 infection? Pregnant women have higher risk of disease and mortality due to certain respiratory infections. Normal changes of pregnancy make these patients especially susceptible to respiratory infections. Respiratory changes during pregnancy include increasing oedema and congestion in the upper airway tract and elevation of the diaphragm. These changes cause increased susceptibility to respiratory pathogens, added to others such as immunotolerance, metabolic changes, etc., make pregnancy a situation of special susceptibility. How is the virus […]

Long-term outcome after acute Covid-19 infection Author: Stefan Lindgren, Sweden The Covid-19 pandemic still persists, although the consequences for patients and societies have diminished dramatically after successful vaccination of the populations. The burden of disease on individuals and societies is still high in countries where the proportion of vaccinated individuals is low. However, new variants of the virus are likely to appear and the duration of the vaccine protection is uncertain. So, we will probably have to live with the threat from the Covid-19 virus and need for revaccination for a long time. Data is accumulating regarding long-term consequences after Covid-19 infection. Although the majority recovers completely, quite a few experience persistent symptoms for many months or even longer. The clinical outcome is more clearly described and understood if we consider two categories of patients; those with severe Covid-19 in need of hospitalization or even intensive care and those with clinically milder disease, managed outside the hospital. Also, the virus variants must be considered, which is particularly obvious now with the apparent milder course of disease with the omicron variant. The vast majority of patients with mild acute disease recover rapidly and completely, particularly those who are fully vaccinated. However, […]