A newborn baby in England who has tested positive for coronavirus is believed to be one of the world’s youngest patients with the disease.
The infant and its mother both tested positive at a north London hospital and staff who had contact with the pair have been advised to self-isolate.
However, scientists say that they remain unclear about how the transmission of the illness occurred and have urged calm.
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Richard Tedder, Visiting Professor in Medical Virology, Imperial College London, said: “The description of the apparent detection of Covid-19 infection in a newly born child of a mother with Covid-19 infection herself raises concerns about the potential ways in which this transmission may have occurred.
“It is important to say at this point in time that the detection of Covid-19 nucleic acid on the sample from the child does not necessarily mean that the child was infected. It could well have come from the mother at the time of delivery, further follow-up of the infant will clarify whether or not the infant is infected.
“Previous data from colleagues in China, published in the journal The Lancet, albeit on a small number of mother and infant pairs, did not show infection in any of the infants at the time of birth. Neither did sampling of breast milk immediately after birth contain detectable virus. Thus, the UK observation of a possible neonatal transmission is unexpected and needs further confirmation.
“The question of risk to a newly born child being nursed by a mother who is known to be infected is a matter that will need careful consideration.
"The absence of detectable virus in breast milk would appear to reduce the risk of breastfeeding however the close, intimate and entirely understandable contact between a mother and her baby will raise questions about how best to care for them. Compounding this too is the lack of knowledge of the clinical outcome of neonatal infection, should this actually occur.”
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