Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE: There are limited published data on the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus from mothers to newborns through breastfeeding or from breast milk. The World Health Organization released guidelines encouraging mothers with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to breastfeed as the benefits of breastfeeding outweighs the possible risk of transmission. The objective of this study was to determine if SARS-CoV-2 was present in the breast milk of lactating mothers who had a positive SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal swab test prior to delivery, and the clinical outcomes for their newborns. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:by two-step reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Additionally, the clinical characteristics of the maternal newborn dyad, results of nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 testing, and neonatal follow-up data were collected. RESULTS: A total of 19 mothers were included in the study and their infants who were all fed breast milk. Breast milk samples from 18 mothers tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, and 1 was positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The infant who ingested the breast milk that tested positive had a negative nasopharyngeal test for SARS-CoV-2, and had a benign clinical course. There was no evidence of significant clinical infection during the hospital stay or from outpatient neonatal follow-up data for all the infants included in this study. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS: In a small cohort of SARS-CoV-2 positive lactating mothers giving birth at our institution, most of their breast milk samples (95%) contained no detectable virus, and there was no evidence of COVID-19 infection in their breast milk-fed neonates. KEY POINTS/CONCLUSIONS:· Breast milk may rarely contain detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA and was not detected in asymptomatic mothers.. · Breast milk with detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA from a symptomatic mother had no clinical significance for her infant.. · Breast feeding with appropriate infection control instructions appears to be safe in mother with COVID infection..

In January 2020, China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia associated with a novel pathogenic coronavirus provisionally named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). Since then, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been reported in more than 180 countries with approximately 3 million known infections and more than 210,000 deaths attributed to this disease. The majority of confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in adults, especially older individuals with co-morbidities. Children have had a relatively lower rate and a less serious course of infection as reported in the literature to date. One of the most vulnerable pediatric patient populations is cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit. There is limited data on the effect of COVID-19 in fetal life, and among neonates after birth. Therefore there is an urgent need for proactive preparation, and planning to combat COVID-19, as well as to safeguard patients, their families, and healthcare personnel. This review article is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) current recommendations for COVID-19 and its adaptation to our local resources. The aim of this article is to provide basic consolidated guidance and checklists to clinicians in the neonatal intensive care units in key aspects of preparation needed to counter exposure or infection with COVID-19. We anticipate that CDC will continue to update their guidelines regarding COVID-19 as the situation evolves, and we recommend monitoring CDC's updates for the most current information.

A diagnosis of intra-amniotic infection is typically made based on clinical criteria, including maternal intrapartum fever and one or more of the following: maternal leukocytosis, purulent cervical drainage, or fetal tachycardia. The diagnosis can also be made in patients with an isolated fever of 39°C, or greater, without any other clinical risk factors present. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, has been noted to have varying signs and symptoms over the course of the disease including fever, cough, fatigue, anorexia, shortness of breath, sputum production, and myalgia. In this report, we detail a case of a newborn born to a mother with a clinical diagnosis of intra-amniotic infection with maternal fever and fetal tachycardia, who was then found to be SARS-CoV-2 positive on testing. Due to the varying presentation of COVID-19, this case illustrates the low threshold needed to test mothers for SARS-CoV-2 in order to prevent horizontal transmission to neonates and to healthcare providers.

We report on a 15-month-old girl with a deletion of the distal short arm of chromosome 1p36.3, partial trisomy of the short arm of chromosome 19p13.3, growth and developmental delay, and multiple anomalies including microcephaly, bifrontal prominence, obtuse frontonasal angle, short columella, hypertelorism, sacral dimples, and a bicuspid pulmonary valve. Based on our FISH mapping studies, we estimate the size of the trisomic region of 19p.13.3 to be approximately 3.17 Mb, and the region of monosomy for 1p36.3 as 1.3 Mb. This is the first report of a patient with partial trisomy 19p13.3 and partial monosomy p36.3.