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What about pregnant women? They're known to be more vulnerable to certain types of illnesses (especially viral infections), yet 29 out of 33 pregnant women who

What about pregnant women? They're known to be more vulnerable to certain types of illnesses (especially viral infections), yet 29 out of 33 pregnant women who tested positive of COVID-19 in NY were still asymptomatic: https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85965 https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85965

enkid 6y ago
Pregnant women are going to be younger on average, and this affects older people the most. Also, same thing as the comment above says, just because they dont have symptoms now does not mean they will never have symptoms.
Scipio_Afri 6y ago
Women are less effected overall. It is thought it is due to ACE2 receptor distribution in the body being different than men, but they don't know. However there is statistically significant worse outcomes/disease severity for men. Pregnant women basically puts the cap of the upper age at around 40. This disease the virus causes in the body is very much worse for those that are older. The study tested pregnant women admitted to the hospital to give birth. There are a lot of doctor appointments and lab work to check things in their last trimester. So they could've contracted it through those high risk places or routine contact with health care workers who I would say are also high risk. Still, the study showed on admission that they were positive so they probably didn't get it from the hospital, unless on admission actually means some time after. That assumes it might be able to be detected so soon into the infect as well. It is a bit strange in that regard that it is such a high number.
boomboomsubban 6y ago
This was testing people admitted to the hospital while going into labor. How easy would it be for a person to distinguish symptoms of being in labor from symptoms of having the illnesses?
beerandt 6y ago
2 ways of looking at this: 1) The main cause of infant death due to coronavirus seems to be complications from early labor and the baby being premature. Also related to hypertension in the mother. But it's only the leading cause due to lack of other causes, not necessarily because it's common. 2) Pregnant women also have a non-standard, somewhat suppressed immune system, since they're basically tolerating a (half-)foreign 9-month infection of sorts. It also explains, as you mention, being vulnerable to various types of infections. But if one of the causes of death for covid is cytokine storm, which is basically an over-responsive immune system failing to regulate itself, then it makes sense that pregnant women, with an over-regulated immune system, might have less risk from that aspect of the disease. More info on it if you look at theories on placental development and why women are more susceptible to autoimmune diseases. Pretty fascinating stuff.
vrtx0 6y ago
The NEJM letter [1] this article is summarizing is only talking about their condition while in the hospital (that is, of the 215 tested, the 33 who tested positive didn’t show symptoms before being discharged (median length of stay is 2 days). That letter cites an article[2], which found that of the 43 pregnancy patients who tested positive, 14 (32.6%) were asymptomatic when admitted. However, 10 of them developed symptoms during their stay in the hospital or shortly after being discharged. It doesn’t say how long they tracked patients, but at most, 4 of the 33 could have been asymptomatic. IMHO, the letter is confusing at best, but more likely intentionally misleading. FWIW, I probably would have come to the same conclusion had I not spent ~45 minutes digging through citations... [1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2009316?cookieSet=1 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2009316?cookieSet... [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589933320300483 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258993332...

enkid 6y ago

Pregnant women are going to be younger on average, and this affects older people the most. Also, same thing as the comment above says, just because they dont have symptoms now does not mean they will never have symptoms.

Scipio_Afri 6y ago

Women are less effected overall. It is thought it is due to ACE2 receptor distribution in the body being different than men, but they don't know. However there is statistically significant worse outcomes/disease severity for men. Pregnant women basically puts the cap of the upper age at around 40. This disease the virus causes in the body is very much worse for those that are older. The study tested pregnant women admitted to the hospital to give birth. There are a lot of doctor appointments and lab work to check things in their last trimester. So they could've contracted it through those high risk places or routine contact with health care workers who I would say are also high risk. Still, the study showed on admission that they were positive so they probably didn't get it from the hospital, unless on admission actually means some time after. That assumes it might be able to be detected so soon into the infect as well. It is a bit strange in that regard that it is such a high number.

boomboomsubban 6y ago

This was testing people admitted to the hospital while going into labor. How easy would it be for a person to distinguish symptoms of being in labor from symptoms of having the illnesses?

beerandt 6y ago

2 ways of looking at this: 1) The main cause of infant death due to coronavirus seems to be complications from early labor and the baby being premature. Also related to hypertension in the mother. But it's only the leading cause due to lack of other causes, not necessarily because it's common. 2) Pregnant women also have a non-standard, somewhat suppressed immune system, since they're basically tolerating a (half-)foreign 9-month infection of sorts. It also explains, as you mention, being vulnerable to various types of infections. But if one of the causes of death for covid is cytokine storm, which is basically an over-responsive immune system failing to regulate itself, then it makes sense that pregnant women, with an over-regulated immune system, might have less risk from that aspect of the disease. More info on it if you look at theories on placental development and why women are more susceptible to autoimmune diseases. Pretty fascinating stuff.

vrtx0 6y ago

The NEJM letter [1] this article is summarizing is only talking about their condition while in the hospital (that is, of the 215 tested, the 33 who tested positive didn’t show symptoms before being discharged (median length of stay is 2 days). That letter cites an article[2], which found that of the 43 pregnancy patients who tested positive, 14 (32.6%) were asymptomatic when admitted. However, 10 of them developed symptoms during their stay in the hospital or shortly after being discharged. It doesn’t say how long they tracked patients, but at most, 4 of the 33 could have been asymptomatic. IMHO, the letter is confusing at best, but more likely intentionally misleading. FWIW, I probably would have come to the same conclusion had I not spent ~45 minutes digging through citations... [1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2009316?cookieSet=1 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2009316?cookieSet... [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589933320300483 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258993332...