A pregnant woman with monkeypox in the US has delivered a healthy baby, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The officials noted that the baby was delivered safely and both are "doing well", CBS news reported.
"There has been a case of a pregnant woman who delivered," the CDC's John Brooks told a webinar hosted by the Infectious Disease Society of America.The CDC had earlier warned that pregnant women are "at especially increased risk for severe outcomes" from monkeypox.
The officials said the newborn was given an infusion of immune globulin, an antibody treatment."That neonate received the IG prophylactically. And both mom and baby are doing well," said the CDC's Brett Petersen on the webinar.
Brooks also stated that the baby did not appear to have contracted the disease from their mother during the pregnancy.The case is the first to be spotted in a pregnant woman in the latest outbreak. However, previous outbreaks, particularly in Africa, had reported of the virus spreading in pregnant women with severe outcomes.
According to a report published in the Lancet, in June, of four pregnant women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo infected with monkeypox virus (probably with the central African clade of the virus) between 2007 and 2011, two had spontaneous early miscarriages, and one had a second-trimester loss at 18 weeks' gestation.
The stillborn foetus had a generalised skin rash, and monkeypox DNA detected in foetal tissue, umbilical cord, and placenta, confirming vertical transmission of the virus.The West African clade of monkeypox, known to be associated with milder disease and a lower case fatality rate, is responsible for the current outbreak, genomic sequencing data has suggested.
However, the effects of this clade in pregnancy are unknown, the authors wrote in the report.More than 18,000 monkeypox cases have been reported from 78 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
While so far, monkeypox cases have been reported predominantly among men who have sex with men, health officials, have warned that the infections may spread beyond the community.In fact, the infection has been reported among a few children in the US, Spain and the Netherlands. And as per the CDC, eight cases have been reported in women.