Which infections can affect pregnancy?For the latest information on COVID-xix and pregnancy, visit CDC at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/pregnancy-breastfeeding.html.

Infections that can affect the health of the pregnant woman, the pregnancy, and the babe subsequently delivery include (merely are not limited to):

  • Bacterial vaginosis is the about mutual vaginal infection in women of reproductive age. It increases the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and may play a role in preterm labor. The condition results from a alter in the balance of bacteria that commonly live in the vagina. Having unprotected sex and douching can increase the risk of bacterial vaginosis. The Centers for Disease Command and Prevention (CDC) recommends that pregnant women get tested for bacterial vaginosis if they accept symptoms and go treated if necessary.1
  • Chlamydia infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and its complications.2 If the infection is nowadays and untreated at the time of delivery, it tin can atomic number 82 to eye infections or pneumonia in the infant.1 In about hospitals, infants' eyes are routinely treated with an antibiotic ointment shortly after nascency. The ointment can prevent blindness from exposure to chlamydia bacteria during commitment in case the pregnant adult female had an undetected infection.
  • Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a mutual virus present in many body fluids that can be spread through close personal contact, such every bit kissing or sharing eating utensils, as well as sexual contact. The virus commonly does not cause health problems, but in one case it is in a person's body, information technology stays in that location for life and can reactivate at different times. A pregnant adult female may not fifty-fifty know she has the infection, and she may laissez passer the virus on to her fetus, causing congenital CMV infection. Near infants with congenital CMV infection never prove signs or accept health problems. However, some infants take health bug such as hearing or vision loss, seizures, or intellectual disabilities that are apparent at birth or that develop later on during infancy or childhood.3 Currently, routine screening for CMV during pregnancy is not recommended. Researchers are working on treatments for CMV and vaccines to effort to prevent new infections during pregnancy and to reduce the risk of transmission to the infant.4Congenital CMV infection tin can be diagnosed by testing a newborn baby's saliva, urine, or claret. Treatment with antiviral drugs may decrease the run a risk of wellness problems and hearing loss in some infected infants.
  • 5th disease is caused by human parvovirus type B19. The virus causes a common childhood disease that spreads easily from person to person. Children who get it unremarkably have a fever and a cerise rash on their cheeks. Parvovirus B19 commonly does non crusade problems for pregnant women or the fetus, only in rare cases, the woman might take a miscarriage or the fetus could develop anemia. At that place is no vaccine or handling for fifth disease. Y'all can reduce your hazard of being infected with parvovirus B19 or infecting others by avoiding contact with people who accept parvovirus B19 and by thoroughly and regularly washing your easily. Sometimes health care providers recommend testing pregnant women to come across if they are immune to the virus already.
  • Untreated gonorrhea infection in pregnancy has been linked to miscarriage, preterm birth and low birth weight, premature rupture of the membranes surrounding the fetus in the uterus, and infection of the fluid that surrounds the fetus during pregnancy. Gonorrhea can likewise infect an babe during delivery equally it passes through the birth canal. If untreated, infants can develop heart infections and blindness. In most hospitals, infants' eyes are routinely treated with an antibiotic ointment before long after nascence to prevent eye issues from exposure to gonorrhea during delivery, in case the significant woman had an undetected infection. Treating gonorrhea equally soon as it is detected in significant women reduces the hazard of manual.
  • Grouping B streptococcus (GBS) can cause serious health issues in infants. Only giving antibiotics during labor can prevent the spread of GBS, so information technology'south of import to get tested for the infection during pregnancy. Acquire more nearly GBS and pregnancy.
  • Pregnant women who get infected with genital canker late in pregnancy accept a high risk of infecting their fetus. The risk of infection is particularly high during delivery.1 Herpes infections in newborns are serious and potentially life-threatening. Infection with the herpes virus during pregnancy or at the fourth dimension of delivery tin can pb to encephalon damage, blindness, and impairment to other organs. Rarely, herpes infection during pregnancy tin can lead to serious complications in the mother, including severe liver damage and peradventure decease.
    • If a meaning woman has had genital herpes in the past, at that place are medications that she tin can take to reduce the chance that she will accept an outbreak, which besides reduces the risk to her fetus.
    • If a woman has active herpes sores when she goes into labor, the baby tin can exist delivered by cesarean department to reduce the take a chance that the infant volition come in contact with the virus.five
  • If a woman is infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) during pregnancy, the virus could infect her fetus. The likelihood of transmission depends on when during pregnancy the mother was infected. If the mother gets the infection afterward in her pregnancy, the risk that the virus volition infect her fetus is quite high. If the infection occurs early in pregnancy, the take chances of the virus infecting the fetus is much lower. For more than information about Hep B during pregnancy, visit the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC) website. In infants, HBV can be serious and tin lead to chronic liver disease or liver cancer afterward in life. In addition, infected newborns accept a very loftier risk of becoming carriers of HBV and can spread the infection to others.
    • In some cases, if a woman is exposed to HBV during pregnancy, she may be treated with a special antibody to reduce the likelihood that she volition get the infection.
    • All good for you infants should be vaccinated against HBV to give them lifelong protection.
    • Infants born to women with evidence of ongoing HBV infection (HBV surface antigen positive) should too receive hepatitis B hyperimmune globulin as before long as possible after nascence.7
  • Hepatitis C virus (HCV). CDC offers more information about HCV.
  • HIV/AIDS . HIV can exist passed from female parent to babe during pregnancy earlier birth, at the time of delivery, or later on birth during breastfeeding.vi
  • Man papillomavirus (HPV). CDC offers more information well-nigh HPV, including vaccine recommendations.
  • Listeria or listeriosis is a serious infection usually acquired past eating food  contaminated with a item type of bacteria. Infection during pregnancy can lead to pregnancy loss, stillbirth, preterm birth, or life-threatening infection of the newborn. Listeriosis is near oft associated with eating soft cheeses and raw milk, only contempo outbreaks have been associated with fresh and frozen produce. Prevention recommendations include checking food labels to avoid eating unpasteurized cheese (fabricated from raw milk) and other actions. Learn more than near preventing listeria during pregnancy.
  • Lyme affliction is the almost common vector-borne disease in the United states of america. It is caused past strains of the bacteriaBorrelia and is transmitted through the bite of certain species of ticks. The National Constitute of Allergy and Infectious Disease has more information on lyme disease. In add-on, the CDC provides a handout about pregnancy and lyme disease (PDF one.2 MB)
  • Getting rubella (sometimes chosen German measles) during pregnancy can cause problems with the pregnancy as well as birth defects in the infant. Health care providers recommend that women get vaccinated against rubella earlier they go meaning. Learn more nigh rubella and pregnancy.
  • Syphilis may pass from an infected mother to her fetus during pregnancy. The infection has been linked to preterm birth, stillbirth, and, in some cases, death shortly after nascency. Untreated infants who survive tend to develop problems in many organs, including the brain, eyes, ears, heart, skin, teeth, and bones. All pregnant women should be screened for syphilis during their beginning prenatal visit. Women considered to be high take a chance should be screened over again in the third trimester.1
  • Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused past a parasite that tin be nowadays in cat feces or used cat litter. Cats get the parasite from eating small animals or birds. In humans, the illness is usually mild, simply if the parasite passes from a pregnant woman to the developing fetus, it can cause intellectual disabilities, blindness, or other bug. Women who are trying to go pregnant or are pregnant tin take steps to forbid exposure to the parasite, such as having someone else clean or change the cat litter box and wearing rubber gloves to handle cat litter or while gardening.
  • Trichomoniasis. CDC offers more than information about trichomoniasis.
  • Zika is caused by a virus spread mainly by the bite of a certain type of mosquito, but it is also spread through sexual contact. Although its symptoms are usually balmy, Zika infection during pregnancy tin cause pregnancy loss and other pregnancy complications, as well as birth defects and other bug for the infant.

CDC provides boosted information on infections during pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy.

Citations

Close Citations

  1. Centers for Disease Command and Prevention. (2016). STDs during pregnancy - CDC fact canvass (detailed). Retrieved January 17, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/std/pregnancy/stdfact-pregnancy-detailed.htm
  2. Rours, 1000. I., Duijts, L., Moll, H. A., Arends, L. R., de Groot, R., Jaddoe, 5. W., et al. (2011). Chlamydia trachomatis infection during pregnancy associated with preterm commitment: A population-based prospective cohort report.European Periodical of Epidemiology , 26(6), 493–502. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21538042
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and congenital CMV infection. Retrieved December 28, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/cmv/index.html
  4. Krause, P. R., Bialek, S. R., Boppana, S. B., Griffiths, P. D., Laughlin, C. A., Ljungman, P., et al. (2013). Priorities for CMV vaccine evolution. Vaccine, 32(1), four–x. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/manufactures/PMC4623576/
  5. Medline Plus. (2017). Genital Herpes. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://world wide web.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/commodity/000857.htm
  6. American Higher of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2012). HIV and pregnancy. Retrieved January eighteen, 2017, from http://www.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/HIV-and-Pregnancy external link
  7. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2019). Hepatitis B and hepatitis C in pregnancy. FAQ093. Retrieved December thirty, 2020, from https://world wide web.acog.org/womens-health/faqs/hepatitis-b-and-hepatitis-c-in-pregnancy external link

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