They are only a few days old, but have already been exposed to the coronavirus. While France is in the midst of the fourth epidemic wave of Covid-19, doctors are concerned to see infants infected with the virus among hospitalized patients. “Since last week, there have been ten babies under twelve weeks hospitalized”, worried Dr. Philippe Babe, head of the deputy pediatric emergency department of the Lenval hospital in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), in an interview with nice morning.
New cases which come under the same pattern of contamination and the same problematic: infected infants are most often infected by one of the parents, unvaccinated and affected by the virus.
The effect of the Delta variant
“During the first wave, here in the emergency room, it was empty, we had no passage of children at all, almost no Covid children. There, since July, it exploded, then described Dr. Babe on BFMTV. When it comes to a little baby who is seven or fifteen days old, we have to keep them. The evolution is good, but these are all the same important constraints for a newborn, ”he added. Infants who most often have a fever and should be observed for four to six days.
Particularity of this fourth wave of coronavirus: the effect of the Delta variant, much more contagious than the previous strains, of which “the L452R mutation is found in 93.5% of the positive samples screened” in France, observes Public Health France. A variant that explodes in particular among young people. Thus, “the highest incidence rate always concerned 20-29 year olds (505 cases per 100,000 people)”, underlines Public Health France in its latest epidemiological bulletin. “Today, we see that this variant [Delta] diffuses the virus within a much younger population, therefore the parents and, by extension, the children ”, points out Dr. Babe. Contaminations that raise another problem: the visits of infected parents to their hospitalized infants, at the risk of spreading the virus to caregivers, already chronically understaffed.
“Future parents and young parents must be vaccinated”
So, “today, the message is simple: future parents and young parents must be vaccinated to protect their babies,” insists Professor Olivier Picone, obstetrician gynecologist at Louis-Mourier hospital, in Colombes, and member of the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF). And from pregnancy! By being vaccinated, the mother produces antibodies that will cross the placenta and then protect the baby during this critical period: when they are the smallest. The first weeks of life. By being vaccinated: there is therefore less risk of contracting the disease, therefore less risk of developing a serious form and less risk of being contaminated, ”he explains.
We therefore vaccinate “pregnant women, but also all those around the infant, starting with the other parent,” recalls Professor Picone. This is the cocooning strategy, which we are already adopting against whooping cough, which consists of vaccinating everyone around the newborn who is too young to be vaccinated, and thus to prevent him from being infected. . And for Covid-19, it is essential to vaccinate from pregnancy, which is even more effective than the sole strategy of cocooning, ”insists Professor Picone. A vaccination that is effective and safe, recommended from the start of pregnancy, especially in France and the United States. “A study published recently in an American scientific journal confirms that anti-Covid vaccination during pregnancy does not increase the risk of obstetric complications,” says Prof. Picone.
Little risk of severe forms
Calling for vigilance without falling into alarmism, the High Authority of Health (HAS) recalls that “current knowledge is reassuring: only 10% of children whose mothers are sick have the virus themselves and rare cases of severe forms have been observed in newborns”. The coronavirus “clings very little during the first weeks of life, most of the forms are benign, some, similar to bronchiolitis, require hospitalizations, but this rarely generates fears”, indicates Professor Christèle Gras-Le-Guen , president of the
French Society of Pediatrics and head of the pediatric emergency department at Nantes University Hospital in The Dispatch.
For young mothers who have not been vaccinated during their pregnancy, in the event of contamination, some precautions can limit the risk of transmission of Covid-19 to their baby: “It is essential to stay at home, to organize the best possible physical distancing within your household. Install yourself, if possible, in a specific room with your baby and place his cradle 2 meters from your bed, prescribed by HAS. You can breastfeed, while respecting barrier gestures (hand washing and wearing a mask), ”she adds. She further specifies that the “baby does not need to be tested unless he or she has symptoms”.
To date, according to Public Health France, 47 children aged 0 to 9 are hospitalized for cases of Covid-19 in France.