Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): A five-day-old baby in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district tested positive for coronavirus today, taking doctors by surprise, health officials said. The infant has become the youngest Covid-19 patient in J&K as yet.
This also comes on a day when health experts raised an alarm over what they claimed as ‘community transmission’ of Covid-19 in Jammu and Kashmir.
They said the newborn baby girl has become the youngest Covid-19 patient in UT, triggering a series of questions on whether the baby got infected with the virus in the womb of her mother, who was already positive, or after birth. The doctors have not come with any explanation so far.
A doctor claimed that the baby tested positive for the virus at Chest Diseases hospital, a few days after her mother was tested positive for the virus.
Block Medical Officer (BMO) Qaimoh, Kulgam, Dr Abdul Gani said that they were taken by surprise to hear that a newborn baby has tested positive. “Both, mother and the baby are asymptomatic and are undergoing treatment at Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag,” he said.
The doctor said that the frequent visits of pregnant ladies to hospitals and clinics are making them more vulnerable to Covid-19 and as seen today, newborn babies are also getting infected now, which is worrisome. To recall, a few days ago, a 20-day-old baby from Satwari area of Jammu had tested positive.
Official figures suggest that there is around 20 percent of Covid-19 positive patients in J&K who are between the age group of 0-19. However, none of this age group has died here so far.
Associate Professor Medicine GMC Srinagar, Dr Nisarul Hassan said that as of now, there is no evidence to suggest that a baby can get infected within the womb of his/her mother.
“It seems that newborn transmits the virus soon after birth while behind handled by the Covid infected mother. The virus gets transmitted during handling within 24 to 48 hours. Second, to find out whether the baby transmits the virus within the mother’s womb, there is a need to test the placental tissue, Cord sampling, or amniotic fluid sampling of the Covid positive mother. If maternal fetus transmission is proved, then that’s a disaster,” Dr Nisar said.
He, however, said mother’s milk doesn’t carry the virus for the newborn.
