Maternal infection by SARS-CoV-2: description of notifications in pregnant women

Objective: To characterize the notifications of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women in a city in the South of Santa Catarina. Methods: Cross-sectional study that evaluated notifications of suspected cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women in the municipality of Tubarão, Santa Catarina, from March 2020 to October 2021. Data were collected from the SARS-CoV-2 infection notification forms from the Municipal Health Foundation, and from the Citizen's Electronic Health Record of the notified pregnant women. The comparison of the prevalence of confirmation according to symptoms and maternal characteristics was performed using the Prevalence Ratio (PR), with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. Results: 555 notifications of suspected pregnant women for COVID-19 were registered, corresponding to 487 women. The prevalence of confirmation for the disease was 27.3%. The most frequent symptom at the time of notification was headache (53.0%), however, the most associated with confirmation was anosmia (PR: 2.28; 95% CI: 1.68-3.09). Of the notifications registered, 35.0% were made by pregnant women who had contact with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19. The previous contact was more frequently reported by asymptomatic pregnant women compared to pregnant women who had symptoms (PR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.12-1.91). Women who reported previous contact with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 had a higher frequency of confirmed disease when compared to unexposed pregnant women (PR: 1.80; 95% CI: 1.35-2.39). Conclusion: Pregnant women, due to their greater susceptibility to disease outbreaks and disease severity, may have adopted more attentive measures such as diagnostic testing in the face of previous contact with cases of COVID-19, even if asymptomatic.