• Omicron prompted spike in COVID cases in

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Monday, April 25, 2022 22:30:42
    Omicron prompted spike in COVID cases in pregnant women, but fewer hospitalizations

    Date:
    April 25, 2022
    Source:
    UT Southwestern Medical Center
    Summary:
    Women who were pregnant during the recent Omicron surge were
    diagnosed with COVID-19 at a much higher rate than during previous
    phases of the pandemic, but were less likely to develop severe
    illness, a study has found.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Women who were pregnant during the recent Omicron surge were diagnosed
    with COVID-19 at a much higher rate than during previous phases of the pandemic, but were less likely to develop severe illness, a study by
    UT Southwestern and Parkland Health scientists found. The research,
    reported in JAMA, is the first published evidence documenting how the
    boom in COVID-19 cases late last year and early this year impacted the
    health of pregnant women.


    ========================================================================== "Obstetrics never stopped during the pandemic. Women are still having
    babies and coming in for their prenatal care," said study leader
    Emily Adhikari, M.D., Assistant Professor and Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist at UTSW and Medical Director of Perinatal Infectious Diseases
    at Parkland Health. "It's important to understand how this virus behaves
    in the population we serve." Dr. Adhikari explained that respiratory infections, including COVID-19, are as infectious to pregnant women as
    they are in the general population. However, their effects can be far
    more severe due to the physiologic changes that occur in pregnancy: While
    a woman's lung capacity decreases about 20-30% during later pregnancy,
    oxygen consumption increases significantly as the fetus grows.

    Although previous research, including a study at UTSW, had shown that hospitalizations of pregnant women increased during the Delta wave of
    COVID-19, no research had yet quantified severity of the Omicron variant
    in this population.

    Toward this end, Dr. Adhikari, along with colleagues in Women and
    Infants Specialty Health at Parkland and in the Departments of Pathology
    and Pediatrics at UT Southwestern, gathered data from patients who
    received prenatal care at Parkland Health, the Dallas County system encompassing a centralized acute care hospital and 10 community-based
    prenatal clinics. The researchers collected information on positive cases
    and whether their illness was severe -- meaning the patient required supplemental oxygen or higher-level support such as high- flow nasal
    cannula, mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
    (a type of life support that temporarily replaces heart and lung function)
    -- spanning May 17, 2020 to Jan. 29, 2022.

    Dr. Adhikari and her colleagues found that 2,641 positive cases were
    diagnosed during this time period, which covered a pre-Delta phase, the
    Delta surge, and the Omicron surge. Their analysis showed that during
    the Delta surge, the case rate was three times higher than during the
    pre-Delta period. The case rate during the Omicron surge was 10 times
    higher than the pre-Delta period.

    However, while Delta cases were about three times more severe than
    pre-Delta cases, Omicron cases were about 80% less severe, Dr. Adhikari
    said.

    She noted that although vaccination might have played a role in decreasing
    the severity of illness, this variable was accounted for, suggesting
    that differences may be due to other factors, such as the behavior of the particular SARS-CoV-2 variant or immunity from prior infection. Because
    the future of the pandemic remains uncertain, Dr. Adhikari added,
    vaccination will be key to helping pregnant women stay healthy if the
    next variant causes more severe illness.

    "We're very lucky that although Omicron caused more cases than Delta,
    it was a less severe variant. If the same portion of positive patients
    had ended up on oxygen or ventilators, we would have been overwhelmed,"
    Dr. Adhikari said. "We have no control over the nature of the next
    variant, but pregnant women do have control over whether to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, which has been proven to help prevent severe illness
    and spread." Other researchers who contributed to this study include
    Jeffrey A. SoRelle, Jessica Morse, Jessica Pruszynski, and Catherine
    Y. Spong, all of UT Southwestern; and Lorre MacDonald of Parkland Health.

    Dr. SoRelle is the inventor of the genotyping PCR tests for variants
    and is entitled to income from their use.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by UT_Southwestern_Medical_Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal References:
    1. Emily H. Adhikari, Lorre MacDonald, Jeffrey A. SoRelle, Jessica
    Morse,
    Jessica Pruszynski, Catherine Y. Spong. COVID-19 Cases and Disease
    Severity in Pregnancy and Neonatal Positivity Associated With Delta
    (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) Variant Predominance. JAMA,
    2022; 327 (15): 1500 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2022.4356
    2. Emily H. Adhikari, Jeffrey A. SoRelle, Donald D. McIntire,
    Catherine Y.

    Spong. Increasing severity of COVID-19 in pregnancy with Delta
    (B.1.617.2) variant surge. American Journal of Obstetrics and
    Gynecology, 2022; 226 (1): 149 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2021.09.008 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220425121046.htm

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