Center-Based Experiences Implementing Strategies to Reduce Risk of Horizontal Transmission of SARS-Cov-2: Potential for Compromise of Neonatal Microbiome Assemblage

  1. Joann Romano-Keeler
  2. Dana Fiszbein
  3. Jilei Zhang
  4. Joseph Horowitz
  5. Karen Hayani
  6. Irina Buhimschi
  7. Christina Lopez
  8. Zaynab Kadhem
  9. James Berman
  10. Phornphat Rasamimari
  11. Aarti Raghavan
  12. De-Ann M. Pillers
  13. Jun Sun

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Abstract

Perinatal transmission of COVID-19 is poorly understood and many neonatal intensive care units’ (NICU) policies minimize mother-infant contact to prevent transmission. We present our unit’s approach and ways it may impact neonatal microbiome acquisition. We attended COVID-19 positive mothers’ deliveries from March-August 2020. Delayed cord clamping and skin-to-skin were avoided and infants were admitted to the NICU. No parents’ visits were allowed and discharge was arranged with COVID-19 negative family members. Maternal breast milk was restricted in the NICU. All twenty-one infants tested negative at 24 and 48 hours and had average hospital stays of nine days. 40% of mothers expressed breastmilk and 60% of infants were discharged with COVID-19 negative caregivers. Extended hospital stays, no skin-to-skin contact, limited maternal milk use, and discharge to caregivers outside primary residences, potentially affect the neonatal microbiome. Future studies are warranted to explore how ours and other centers’ similar policies influence this outcome.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.07.21249418: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: This study was approved by the UIC Institutional Review Board (protocol no. 2020-0443).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.01.07.21249418v1 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.01.07.21249418v2 on medRxiv