Emerging statistics on the Epidemiology of COVID-19: Making prevention in pregnancy less grievous than the disease

Abstract

Background: Pregnant women are a vulnerable group to the COVID-19 infection; although it is expected that adaptive changes of pregnancy put them at increased risk of adverse outcome from any respiratory tract infection, interventions for the COVID-19 may put them in more danger. Nigeria is one of the leading countries with very poor maternal mortality indices and many other sub-Saharan African nations are in the same boat. Contingency plans need to be put in place to prevent precipitous deterioration in mortality rates occasioned by the dreaded SARS- Cov-2 pandemic. This mini-review of literature and WHO global statistics is aimed to determine the trends in COVID-19 transmission and mortality rates to provide evidence-based information that may enable governments to tailor their interventions to the peculiar needs, of sub-Saharan African populations.

Main body: Emerging epidemiological trends on transmission and mortality within Africa and the worst affected regions of the world suggests better outcomes of this infection in sub-Saharan Africa, than in other regions of the world. Also, present data allude to similar outcomes between pregnant and non-pregnant women. The present containment measures of isolation and quarantine, including city-wide lockdowns, may put pregnant women at higher risk of death from other causes rather than COVID-19. The danger posed, is the limitation of access to emergency obstetric care services when pregnant women develop non-COVID-19 complications of pregnancy.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has lower local transmission rates and fatality in Africa, the region where the virus arrived last. While special efforts should be geared at shielding the elderly and infirm from contracting the infection, preventive measures in pregnant women must allow for access to emergency obstetric care to forestall iatrogenic adverse maternal outcomes.