A dead foetus was found dead in mother’s womb tested positive for COVID-19. The mother said to be admitted into hospital after contracting coronavirus as she suffered a still birth. Medics however found that the dead foetus had also tested positive with the virus.
However, it is unclear whether the virus caused the death of the unborn child, however, officials say the foetus also tested positive for Covid.
Times of Israel reported that Medics in Israel discovered the unborn child had died in the womb after the mum suffered a two day fever.
Doctors at the hospital, near Tel Aviv, then tested the unborn child and found it had also been infected with Covid-19.
According to the country’s Health Ministry, the occurrence becomes newsworthy because it was the first known incident of its kind in Israel and rare globally.
The tragedy followed another similar case in the country the previous week.
A 29-year-old woman was found to have been carrying the virus after she suffered a stillbirth in the 25th week of her pregnancy.
Doctors at the Assuta Hospital in Ashdod said the stillbirth was highly likely to have died from the coronavirus infection, reports The Mirror.
“The fetus was infected through the placenta and with a very high degree of certainty, [we can say] died due to coronavirus,” Dr Tal Brosh, head of the Infectious Disease Department at the hospital told the Ynet news site.
The hospital’s maternity ward director, Dr Yossi Tobin, added that because the foetus was infected in the womb it was probably the virus caused its death.
“It was an intrauterine infection of the fetus, which can cause placental infection and death,” Dr Tobin said.
“This is a rare occurrence because a baby is usually infected with coronavirus after birth, as a result of contact with the mother. The fact that we were able to find out that they were already positive in the womb indicates a high probability that [the fetus] died as a result of coronavirus.”
Israel’s Health Ministry has been advising pregnant women to get the coronavirus vaccine after a number of worrying cases.
Israeli media reported a number of expectant mothers had fallen seriously ill with coronavirus.
Some had to be delivered prematurely via caesarean section after doctors deemed their infection life-threatening to the mothers and their unborn children.
The UK government is currently advising pregnant women to wait until after birth to get their vaccine unless they fall into a high-risk category.
Women who had the first dose before they became pregnant are being advised to wait until their child is born to have their second jab.
