Uttar Pradesh / COVID-19 negative woman delivers COVID-19 positive baby in Varanasi

A COVID-19 negative woman has delivered a COVID-19 positive baby girl in a Varanasi hospital. As per the hospital's Medical Superintendent, this was not an abnormal incident as an RT PCR test's sensitivity was up to 70%. He added that the woman's sample might have gone beyond that sensitivity mark and ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Vikrant Shekhawat : May 28, 2021, 06:07 PM

Varanasi: A shocking case has emerged from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi after a newborn tested positive for coronavirus despite the mother’s Covid-19 test report coming negative.

There have been instances of Covid-19 positive mothers delivering healthy babies who test negative but this is a one-of-a-kind case where it has happened the other way around.

The delivery took place at the SS Hospital in Banaras Hindu University on May 25.

Thirty-two-year-old businessman Anil Prajapati told The Hindu that his wife Supriya was admitted on May 24 and the hospital got her Covid tests done the same day through RT-PCR. The report showed negative.

However, when Supriya delivered the baby girl the very next day, the baby tested positive as per the RT-PCR report on May 26.

“The baby’s sample was taken from the operation theatre even before the child was given to us… It’s strange. I did feel some anxiety. We can’t understand if the test reports are faulty,” Prajapati told the newspaper.

Both, the mother and the newborn, are doing fine.

The BHU medical superintendent has ordered an enquiry into the incident and a fresh test on both will be done in a few days.

In other news…

The King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow helped a 35-year-old Covid-19 positive pregnant woman with a rare immune system disorder deliver a healthy baby girl earlier this week.

The baby was delivered through the C-section surgery.

Doctors said both, the woman and the baby, are doing fine and have now been discharged.

Deepika Tiwari suffers from ‘Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura’ (ITP), in which the host’s immune system destroys platelets, resulting in internal bleeding or from the skin. The hospital management, however, helped the patient facilitate a safe delivery.

“Tears rolled out when I was told that my wife had delivered a healthy girl and both were stable,” Shailendra Tiwari, the woman’s husband, told news agency IANS.