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

Infections that can bear on the health of the significant woman, the pregnancy, and the baby after delivery include (but are not express to):

  • Bacterial vaginosis is the most common vaginal infection in women of reproductive historic period. It increases the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and may play a part in preterm labor. The condition results from a change in the rest of leaner that normally live in the vagina. Having unprotected sex and douching can increase the take a chance of bacterial vaginosis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that pregnant women become tested for bacterial vaginosis if they accept symptoms and become treated if necessary.one
  • Chlamydia infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth and its complications.two If the infection is present and untreated at the time of delivery, it can pb to eye infections or pneumonia in the infant.1 In about hospitals, infants' eyes are routinely treated with an antibiotic ointment shortly afterwards nativity. The ointment can forestall blindness from exposure to chlamydia bacteria during delivery in case the pregnant woman had an undetected infection.
  • Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus present in many torso fluids that tin exist spread through close personal contact, such equally kissing or sharing eating utensils, as well equally sexual contact. The virus usually does not crusade health problems, but once it is in a person's body, it stays there for life and tin can reactivate at different times. A meaning woman may not even know she has the infection, and she may laissez passer the virus on to her fetus, causing congenital CMV infection. Most infants with built CMV infection never prove signs or accept health issues. However, some infants have health problems such as hearing or vision loss, seizures, or intellectual disabilities that are credible at nativity or that develop later on during infancy or babyhood.iii Currently, routine screening for CMV during pregnancy is not recommended. Researchers are working on treatments for CMV and vaccines to effort to preclude new infections during pregnancy and to reduce the take chances of manual to the infant.ivCongenital CMV infection can exist diagnosed by testing a newborn baby's saliva, urine, or claret. Treatment with antiviral drugs may decrease the risk of health problems and hearing loss in some infected infants.
  • Fifth disease is acquired past man parvovirus type B19. The virus causes a common childhood affliction that spreads easily from person to person. Children who get it usually have a fever and a red rash on their cheeks. Parvovirus B19 usually does not cause issues for pregnant women or the fetus, just in rare cases, the adult female might take a miscarriage or the fetus could develop anemia. There is no vaccine or handling for fifth disease. You can reduce your chance of being infected with parvovirus B19 or infecting others by avoiding contact with people who have parvovirus B19 and by thoroughly and regularly washing your hands. Sometimes wellness intendance providers recommend testing pregnant women to see if they are immune to the virus already.
  • Untreated gonorrhea infection in pregnancy has been linked to miscarriage, preterm birth and low nativity 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 as well infect an babe during delivery as it passes through the birth culvert. If untreated, infants can develop middle infections and blindness. In most hospitals, infants' eyes are routinely treated with an antibody ointment before long after birth to prevent heart problems from exposure to gonorrhea during delivery, in case the significant woman had an undetected infection. Treating gonorrhea every bit presently as it is detected in pregnant women reduces the risk of transmission.
  • Grouping B streptococcus (GBS) tin can cause serious wellness problems in infants. But giving antibiotics during labor can foreclose the spread of GBS, and then it's important to get tested for the infection during pregnancy. Learn more than almost GBS and pregnancy.
  • Pregnant women who get infected with genital herpes tardily in pregnancy have a loftier risk of infecting their fetus. The risk of infection is specially high during commitment.1 Canker infections in newborns are serious and potentially life-threatening. Infection with the herpes virus during pregnancy or at the time of commitment can lead to brain damage, blindness, and damage to other organs. Rarely, canker infection during pregnancy tin lead to serious complications in the mother, including severe liver damage and peradventure death.
    • If a pregnant woman has had genital herpes in the past, at that place are medications that she can take to reduce the chance that she volition have an outbreak, which also reduces the risk to her fetus.
    • If a woman has active herpes sores when she goes into labor, the baby tin can be delivered by cesarean section to reduce the chance that the babe volition come in contact with the virus.5
  • If a woman is infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) during pregnancy, the virus could infect her fetus. The likelihood of manual depends on when during pregnancy the female parent was infected. If the mother gets the infection later in her pregnancy, the gamble that the virus volition infect her fetus is quite high. If the infection occurs early in pregnancy, the run a risk of the virus infecting the fetus is much lower. For more information about Hep B during pregnancy, visit the Centers for Disease Command and Prevention (CDC) website. In infants, HBV tin can be serious and can lead to chronic liver affliction or liver cancer later in life. In addition, infected newborns take a very loftier risk of becoming carriers of HBV and can spread the infection to others.
    • In some cases, if a adult female is exposed to HBV during pregnancy, she may be treated with a special antibody to reduce the likelihood that she will go the infection.
    • All healthy infants should be vaccinated against HBV to give them lifelong protection.
    • Infants born to women with show of ongoing HBV infection (HBV surface antigen positive) should besides receive hepatitis B hyperimmune globulin every bit presently as possible after birth.seven
  • Hepatitis C virus (HCV). CDC offers more information about HCV.
  • HIV/AIDS . HIV tin exist passed from mother to infant during pregnancy before birth, at the time of delivery, or after birth during breastfeeding.6
  • Man papillomavirus (HPV). CDC offers more information about HPV, including vaccine recommendations.
  • Listeria or listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food  contaminated with a particular blazon of bacteria. Infection during pregnancy can lead to pregnancy loss, stillbirth, preterm birth, or life-threatening infection of the newborn. Listeriosis is nearly often associated with eating soft cheeses and raw milk, but recent outbreaks accept been associated with fresh and frozen produce. Prevention recommendations include checking food labels to avoid eating unpasteurized cheese (made from raw milk) and other actions. Learn more about preventing listeria during pregnancy.
  • Lyme affliction is the almost mutual vector-borne disease in the United States. It is caused by strains of the bacteriaBorrelia and is transmitted through the seize with teeth of certain species of ticks. The National Institute of Allergy and Communicable diseases has more information on lyme disease. In add-on, the CDC provides a handout near pregnancy and lyme disease (PDF 1.2 MB)
  • Getting rubella (sometimes called High german measles) during pregnancy can cause issues with the pregnancy equally well as nascency defects in the infant. Health care providers recommend that women get vaccinated confronting rubella before they get pregnant. Learn more about rubella and pregnancy.
  • Syphilis may pass from an infected female parent to her fetus during pregnancy. The infection has been linked to preterm nascency, stillbirth, and, in some cases, decease shortly afterward nativity. 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 commencement prenatal visit. Women considered to be loftier take chances should exist screened once again in the third trimester.1
  • Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by a parasite that tin can exist nowadays in cat feces or used cat litter. Cats get the parasite from eating pocket-size animals or birds. In humans, the disease is normally mild, but if the parasite passes from a pregnant woman to the developing fetus, it can cause intellectual disabilities, incomprehension, or other issues. Women who are trying to go significant or are pregnant can take steps to prevent exposure to the parasite, such equally having someone else make clean or alter the cat litter box and wearing rubber gloves to handle cat litter or while gardening.
  • Trichomoniasis. CDC offers more than information most trichomoniasis.
  • Zika is caused past a virus spread mainly by the bite of a certain type of mosquito, but information technology is also spread through sexual contact. Although its symptoms are commonly balmy, Zika infection during pregnancy tin can crusade pregnancy loss and other pregnancy complications, likewise 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 Illness Command and Prevention. (2016). STDs during pregnancy - CDC fact sheet (detailed). Retrieved Jan 17, 2017, from https://world wide web.cdc.gov/std/pregnancy/stdfact-pregnancy-detailed.htm
  2. Rours, Grand. 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 study.European Journal of Epidemiology , 26(six), 493–502. Retrieved January eighteen, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21538042
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and built 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 development. Vaccine, 32(1), 4–10. Retrieved Jan 18, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4623576/
  5. Medline Plus. (2017). Genital Herpes. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000857.htm
  6. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2012). HIV and pregnancy. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://world wide web.acog.org/Patients/FAQs/HIV-and-Pregnancy external link
  7. The American Higher of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2019). Hepatitis B and hepatitis C in pregnancy. FAQ093. Retrieved December 30, 2020, from https://www.acog.org/womens-health/faqs/hepatitis-b-and-hepatitis-c-in-pregnancy external link

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