In what is believed to be an unprecedented case, newborn triplets in Mexico have tested positive for COVID-19 – and experts are investigating whether they were infected from the mother’s placenta during pregnancy, according to a report.
Two of the babies, a boy and a girl, were listed in stable condition in a hospital in San Luis Potosí state, but a second boy is being treated for a respiratory condition, the BBC reported.
Contagion in multiple births had not previously been detected anywhere around the world, a spokesperson for the state’s Health Safety Committee said.
A very small number of newborns have been known to be infected after birth, but health officials said they did not believe that is what happened in the case of the triplets, who were born prematurely on Wednesday.
They all tested positive for the coronavirus on the day of their birth.
“It would be impossible for them to have been infected at the moment of birth,” State Health Secretary Mónica Liliana Rangel Martínez said, the BBC reported.
Their parents — who may have been asymptomatic — are being tested for the bug, which has infected more than 185,000 people and killed 22,584 in Mexico, according to the news outlet.
The infection among newborns is unusual, but not unheard of.
Babies can contract the disease after birth if they have close contact with anyone who is already infected. It also might be passed on in the womb via the placenta.
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine recently reported the first known case of placental infection, according to the BBC.
When infection does occur, the risk to mother and baby is often low and there is no evidence that the virus causes miscarriage or affects how a baby develops during pregnancy – but some reports suggest it might increase the likelihood of premature births.