Dengue and malaria infections in pregnancy : Maternal, fetal and neonatal outcomes at a tertiary care hospital

Intraoperative Post Partum Hemorrhage in a Patient with Dengue Fever

A 33 year old obstetric patient with mild fever of undiagnosed etiology underwent emergency caesarean section under general anesthesia. She had platelet count of 98,000 per microliter and increased APTT of 37.8 s at the time of surgery. After uneventful anesthetic induction and delivery of fetus, slow and oozing type of bleeding led to massive hemorrhage. Patient remained vitally stable throughout perioperative phase and was extubated. Next day, patient's dengue IgM antibody was reported positive. Neonate was well and his dengue test was negative. Pregnant women are at high risk of developing severe complications of dengue fever with unclear mechanisms related to impaired coagulation. Regional anesthesia may not have safe outcome due to dengue infection.

Neonatal Outcomes From Arboviruses in the Perinatal Period: A State-of-the-Art Review

Since the 2016 Zika outbreak and the understanding of the teratogenic effect of this infection, there has been a newfound interest in arbovirus infections and their effects on pregnancy, resulting in numerous publications in the last 5 years. However, limited literature focuses on arbovirus infection in different stages of pregnancy and their effect on the neonate. There is currently no consensus management of perinatal acquisition of arboviruses, and current evidence is largely anecdotal observational reports. Teratogens can have different effects on the developing fetus depending on the time of infection, so infections during pregnancy should be analyzed by trimester. A better understanding of arbovirus infection in the perinatal period is required to assist obstetric, neonatal, and pediatric clinicians in making decisions about the management of mother and neonate. Our objective was to assess the evidence of adverse neonatal outcomes for several arboviral infections when contracted during the perinatal period to guide clinicians in managing these patients. There are 8 arboviruses for which neonatal outcomes from maternal acquisition in the perinatal period have been reported, with the most data for dengue and Chikungunya virus infections. The evidence reviewed in this article supports the adoption of preventive strategies to avoid ticks and mosquitoes close to the date of delivery. For the other arbovirus infections, further community-based cohort studies during outbreaks are required to evaluate whether these infections have a similar teratogenic impact.