Odisha: HIV and COVID-19 Positive Woman Gives Birth To Healthy Baby Girl

An HIV and COVID positive woman gave birth to a healthy baby girl at City Hospital, Behrampur, Odisha. This happened on Saturday.

Thankfully, the newborn is perfectly fine, and has tested negative for COVID-19. Both the mother and the child are healthy, and are doing well.

Odisha | An HIV and Covid positive woman gave birth to a baby girl. Both mother and child are in healthy condition. HIV preventive medicines have been administered to the baby: Dr Prasanta Patra, City hospital, Berhampur pic.twitter.com/sYCZW4l6zZ

— ANI (@ANI) May 18, 2021

The woman's daughter tests negative for COVID-19

The woman, who is a resident of Pattapur village in Ganjam district had complained of labour pain about a week ago. Her family then brought her to the City Hospital, where she was admitted to the gynaecology ward. A COVID test was conducted on her inside the ward, and it was found to be positive.

"After being found Covid positive, she became extremely anxious. We kept her in isolation and staff nurses were constantly monitoring her vital parameters besides, counselling her to reduce her anxiety", said a doctor from the City Hospital.

Then on Saturday, she gave birth to the baby girl, via C-section. A COVID test was conducted on the newborn, and it came out to be negative. An HIV test will be conducted on her after six weeks. She has now been put under isolation, while her mother has been shifted to the hospital's COVID ward. The woman has been receiving treatment for HIV since 2014.

Dr Prasanta Patra from City Hospital added that the baby is being given HIV preventive medicines.

The doctors at the hospital celebrated the safe delivery of the HIV and COVID positive woman by cutting a cake.

According to a new research, it has been found that if a woman tests positive for COVID-19 during pregnancy, it won't really harm the baby. The study had found that only 0.2 per cent of babies born to COVID positive mothers, had tested positive for the virus. Read more about the study here.