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LiveScience
LiveScience
Nicoletta Lanese

In rare cases, COVID-19 infection in pregnancy can cause brain damage to fetuses

close up photo of a mother's arms holding a baby; the woman's skin is tan and she's wearing a hospital bracelet on her wrist and a hospital gown

In rare cases, COVID-19 infections in pregnancy can cross the placenta and cause fetal brain damage via harmful inflammation, two new cases suggest. Evidence presented in the paper also "raises the possibility" that the coronavirus may be able to directly infect the fetal brain.

The new report, published Thursday (April 6) in the journal Pediatrics, described two mothers who both tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, during their second trimesters of pregnancy. They caught the virus in 2020, before vaccines were available. 

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