Mumbai: The second wave of Covid-19 proved to be more deadly for pregnant women with more deaths and ICU revenues compared to the previous year, a study by two city institutions had concluded.
In the light of their findings, the researchers said the vaccination of pregnant women must be prioritized.
After a lot of doubts, the central government has recently provided a nod to vaccinate pregnant women.
State officials said preparations were being carried out to start next week.
Joint analysis by Nair BYL Hospital managed by the Civic and ICMR-National Institute of Reproductive Health has shown that the case mortality rate (CFR) among pregnant women rose almost eight times while Covid cases were severe at least five times more in the second wave.
This finding was recently published in the official journal American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist.
From 0.7% CFR in the first wave, the CFR surged to 5.7% in 2021.
The proportion of severe cases this time was 8.5% compared to 1.7% in the first wave.
Comparative data from two waves also shows that nearly 12% of covid-positive pregnant women require acceptance to the ICU or high dependency unit (HDU) in the second wave compared to 2.4% in 2020.
The Nair Hospital has become a dedicated center for care Covid’s positive pregnant woman since April last year.
Between April 2020 and May 202, he served 1,530 pregnant and post-shipping cases.
Of these, 1,143 was treated between April and January this year, which was considered a ‘first wave’ study, while the remaining 387 was treated in ‘second wave’ between February and May 2021.
Of the 1,143 acceptance there were eight deaths.
In the first wave, compared with 387 acceptance and 22 deaths in the four months of the second wave.
Maternal mortality ratio (per 1,000 births) in the second wave was significantly high at 83.3 among pregnant women who were positively covid compared to 10.2 of the first wave.
The dead rate per 1,000 birth was 34 on the second wave compared to 15.3 in the first wave.
The premature birth rate is also 128.7 compared to 93.2 in the first wave.
“Although the exact cause of increased severity and mortality is not known, we suspect that a very deadly variant (B.1.617), which is now considered responsible for the second wave in Maharashtra and other parts of India, playing a role,” said Dr.
neeraj Mahajan, the main author of the research from Nair.
The cause of the death of the mother of 93% is covid-19 pneumonia and respiratory failure.
The research findings underlined the importance of offering vaccination to pregnant and breastfeeding women, said Dr.
Rahul Gajbhiye, the writer with the research from ICMR-NIRRH.
More than 20 lakh pregnant women in the state and around 1.5 lakh in the city will be eligible.
Breastfeeding mothers have been inoculated.
Nair and ICMR-NIRRH also compiled a registry called Registry Pregcovid from India to document the results of SARS-COV2 infection in pregnant women.