- A new study of coronavirus in Singapore indicates that babies whose mothers are infected during pregnancy are likely to be born with COVID-19 antibodies.
- Neutralizing antibodies could provide immunity from birth, although researchers cannot say what kind of protection babies receive or how long it will last.
- Of the 16 pregnant women in the study, five gave birth by the time of publication and all newborns had detectable levels of antibodies in their blood. Two women lost their babies and one of the miscarriages could have been caused by COVID-19 complications.
Neutralizing antibodies are proteins that the immune system creates to stop the virus from spreading. The antibodies bind to the spike protein, preventing it from infecting the cells. Coronavirus vaccines will actually teach the immune system how to respond to infection by inducing COVID-19 specific antibodies. The antibodies may disappear after a while, but the protection of COVID-19 could last longer than that due to another set of components of the immune system: B and T cells that patrol the blood that will preserve the memory of the virus.
Researchers have no idea how long the immunity to the coronavirus will last, whether the protection follows infection or exposure to the virus. There is hope that immunity could last at least a year, but it will take longer for researchers to make such determinations. However, a subgroup of the population may have COVID-19 immunity from the moment they are born: babies whose mothers survived the coronavirus during pregnancy.
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A few days ago, a report from Singapore said that a child was born with antibodies that can neutralize the new coronavirus. In essence, the newborn has COVID-19 immunity right from the womb. His mother contracted the disease early in the pandemic and early in pregnancy. She was only 10 weeks pregnant when she became infected and gave birth to a healthy baby boy in mid-November. The mother no longer has antibodies to the coronavirus, but her son does.
At the time, it was unclear whether all mothers who became infected with the pathogen during pregnancy would give birth to children with detectable antibodies to coronavirus. The news comes from the same country, as researchers report an increasing number of children with antibodies. Reuters reports that a new study says five children were born to women with COVID-19 infection and all have antibodies.
The study looked at 16 women and found that most of them had a mild case of COVID-19. Older women and those with a higher body mass index experienced a more severe version of the disease.
Five of them had given birth by the time the study was published, and all the mothers had antibodies.
The researchers also measured antibody levels in children and found that babies with mothers who had the disease closer to the disease had higher amounts of antibodies.
Research has found that none of the women transmitted the virus to children. None of the pregnant women died, but two of them lost their babies. Only one of the two prenatal deaths could be related to the complications of COVID-19.
The study may be limited, but Singapore’s obstetrics and gynecology research network said in a statement that “the results of the study were reassuring”.
This demonstrates that the incidence and severity of COVID-19 among pregnant women are parallel to the general population trends, the group said.
That being said, researchers still warn that it is unclear what kind of protection antibodies will provide to babies and more data is needed. Babies and children usually experience milder cases of COVID-19, but there have been exceptions. Researchers will monitor babies for antibodies over time. Another Reuters The report on this topic indicates a research from China that stated that antibodies decreased in children born to COVID-19 survivors.
Chris Smith began writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it, he was sharing his views on technology with readers around the world. Whenever he doesn’t write about gadgets, he can’t stay away from them, even though he tries desperately. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.