Photo: Fakgrul Najmi/Shutterstock.com
The first child ever to be born with Covid-19 antibodies has been delivered in Florida in the United States.
The mother of the girl is a healthcare worker who had received the Moderna vaccine three weeks before the baby was due to be born. Scientists then tested the umbilical cord for the presence of Covid-19 antibodies, which gave a positive result.
It could mean that the child now has immunity to the Covid-19 virus that has killed millions of people over the last year.
The findings have been reported by Paul Gilbert and Chad Rudnick but have not yet been per-reviewed.
The study was undertaken to see if immunity to Covid-19 could be passed on from mother to child, either through natural infection or via a vaccine. It is well known that the flu vaccine does transfer antibody protection from mother to child, but similar studies have not been carried out to see if the same thing happens with Covid-19 vaccinations.
Paul Gilbert, who helped lead the study, said:
"To our knowledge, this was the first in the world that was reported of a baby being born with antibodies after a vaccination. We tested ... the baby's blood, to see if the antibodies in the mother passed to the baby which is something we see happen with other vaccines given during pregnancy."
A previous study has shown that mothers who had been vaccinated, or had become infected with Covid-19, had antibodies in their breast-milk, leading researchers to speculate that immunity may be passed to a child in this way.
It is not of course yet possible to know whether either having a mother with antibodies or drinking breast-milk with antibodies will protect children against the virus. Thankfully at present, Covid-19 is almost always a mild disease in both babies and children, nor do they seem to catch the virus as easily as older humans.
The researchers conclude by saying:
"This is one small case in what will be thousands and thousands of babies born to mothers who have been vaccinated over the next several months. [We] urge other investigators to create pregnancy and breastfeeding registries as well as conduct efficacy and safety studies of the COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant and breastfeeding woman and their offspring."
[h/t: IFL Science]
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