Assessing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy on women and infant health: from mechanisms to scenarios of a future respiratory virus-related epidemic and preventive strategies (ARTEMI)

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant concerns about the potential long-term effects on women and infants exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy.

This points to the urgency of developing balanced policy responses during COVID-19 epidemic phases and future pandemics.Taking Sweden and England as a case-in-point, this project aims to address the following questions: 1) What are the adverse health outcomes after the delivery associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy? 2) What are the adverse health outcomes associated with intrauterine exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection in infants? 3) How can preventive strategies mitigate the impacts on women and infant health of a potential future respiratory virus-related pandemic?Accessing novel data resources from Sweden and England, we will quantify the excess risk of 2-year post-delivery adverse health outcomes in women and offspring exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and compare with influenza (as a positive control).

We will then develop future pandemic scenarios using ‘storylines’.This effort is timely: 1) to reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy on women and infant health; 2) to support better-informed prevention strategies (e.g. targeted vaccination campaigns, early monitoring) for high-risk individuals; 3) to reduce the impacts of future pandemics on the most vulnerable, such as pregnant women and offspring (e.g. new recommendations and long-term contingency plans).