Pregnant women infected with chickenpox, herpes, rubella, and zika viruses can transmit them to the fetus, leading to visual, hearing, and central nervous system defects.
According to MSc. Dr. Nguyen Thi Quy Khoa, Deputy Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Obstetrics and Gynecology Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, a 12-week-old fetus is vulnerable because its immune system is not strong enough to fight infections. At this time, pregnant women with infectious diseases can cause complications affecting the health of mother and child.
Chickenpox
Chickenpox is a contagious disease caused by the varicella virus. If a pregnant woman is infected with this virus during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, it can lead to congenital varicella syndrome in the fetus. This is a rare birth defect that can easily cause scarring on the baby’s skin, affecting the eyes, brain, hands, feet, and digestive tract. These changes can be detected during prenatal ultrasound. If the pregnant woman is infected with chickenpox a few weeks before giving birth, the baby may develop neonatal chickenpox, which can be life-threatening.
Doctor Quy Khoa advises on the stages of pregnancy examination. Illustration: Tam Anh General Hospital
Herpes
Herpes virus (HSV) often causes infections in the skin, mouth, lips, eyes and genitals… Doctor Quy Khoa said that this virus affects the fetus in each stage. If the mother is infected with herpes virus in weeks 6-14 of pregnancy, there is a risk of miscarriage, fetal malformations with symptoms such as blisters or scars on the skin, small eyes, cataracts, chorioamnionitis, neurological effects due to the consequences of microcephaly, intracranial calcification. Infection in the last three months of pregnancy can lead to premature birth, prenatal muscle atrophy, lack of oxygen, and stillbirth.
Newborns infected with HSV from their mothers often show symptoms after 5 days of age or after 4-6 weeks, leading to difficulties in diagnosis and treatment. Symptoms include blisters in the eyes, mouth, skin lesions and the central nervous system or spread to internal organs. The disease progresses severely affecting the central nervous system, increasing the risk of hepatitis, pneumonia, sepsis, multiple organ failure syndrome, disseminated intravascular coagulation. The neonatal mortality rate is about 50%.
Pregnant women get flu vaccine at Tam Anh General Hospital. Photo: Wisdom
Rubella
Rubella is an infectious disease that can be transmitted from mother to child through the blood, with a high risk of causing birth defects. “Pregnant women with rubella virus in the first three months of pregnancy have a 90% chance of transmitting the virus to the baby, with a risk of miscarriage or stillbirth,” said Dr. Quy Khoa. After the fourth month of pregnancy, a mother infected with rubella is less likely to harm the fetus.
Newborns with congenital rubella syndrome can suffer from serious disabilities including hearing loss, heart defects, cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, pneumonia, meningitis, developmental delays, etc. Many cases require treatment, surgery, and care at high costs.
Virus zika
The Zika virus is transmitted mainly by Aedes mosquitoes (striped mosquitoes) that live mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. Most people infected with this virus have no symptoms, if any, they usually have some symptoms such as rash, fever, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, headache lasting 2-7 days.
Zika virus infection during the first two trimesters of pregnancy can cause premature birth, miscarriage or a high risk of fetal malformations. The newborn is likely to have microcephaly, corpus callosum abnormalities, intracranial calcification, ventricular hypertrophy, cerebral or cortical atrophy, optic nerve and hearing abnormalities, difficulty swallowing, seizures, muscle stiffness…
Doctor Quy Khoa recommends that vaccination is the best way to help pregnant women prevent infectious diseases during pregnancy, reducing the risk of birth defects in children.