Perinatal COVID-19: a case report, literature review, and proposal of a national system for case record.

BACKGROUND: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, and on February 28, Mexico reported its first case. Internationally, cases in newborns are few and the outcomes, in general, are good. There is no certainty of possible vertical transmission, and the presence of the virus in human milk is improbable. The gold standard for diagnosis is the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. We performed a literature review and presented a case of perinatal COVID-19.

CLINICAL CASE: We describe the case of a full-term male infant with a birth weight of 3450 g and history of rooming-in with another mother-baby pair, both positive for SARS-CoV-2. On the second day of life, the neonate developed pneumonia, with clinical, X-ray and ultrasound diagnostic confirmation. On the third day of life, RT-PCR was positive for SARS-CoV-2; the mother was also positive but remained asymptomatic. The patient required mechanical ventilation and was transferred to a tertiary level neonatal unit on day 5 of life, where congenital heart disease was ruled out. He evolved satisfactorily with a negative RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 on day 8 and was extubated and discharged on day 21 of life. Telephone follow-up was performed without complications.

CONCLUSIONS: The present case was classified as horizontal transmission with a short incubation period of COVID-19.