NEW Updates on Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition and COVID-19 – excerpts from scientific journal articles – 29 October 2020

31 October, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

We have updated our scientific repository<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhopkins.... Since our last update Thursday 22 October 2020, we have added 100 NEW publications for:

* October (71 new)

* June (3 new)

* September (13 new)

* May (2 new)

* August (5 new)

* April (3 new)

* July (3 new)

Click here to view the updated repository<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhopkins...

Individual months are located on the right-hand side, and new additions are marked in blue. To find the publication or topic of your interest, you can search in an individual month file using the Ctrl+F keys.

All publications provide emerging evidence related to COVID-19 and

* Child health (from neonates to adolescents)

* Maternal health (pregnant women, women of reproductive age)

* Breastfeeding and Infant feeding

* Nutrition (related to MCH)

Twelve articles in this update discuss vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Five reviews found vertical transmission to be rare (Neef et al., 2020)(Sivanandan et al., 2020)(Bwire et al., 2020), found its possibility uncertain (Alsohime et al., 2020), or found no evidence (Liu et al., 2020). One of these reviews observed that 90% of neonates that were vertically exposed but who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 showed presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, indicating possible passive immunity in infants born to mothers with COVID-19 (Bwire et al., 2020).

Thirty-one articles discuss maternal health, including obstetric complications associated with COVID-19, maternal morbidity and mortality, adaptations to prenatal care (Peahl et al., 2020), and possible protective properties of pregnancy against severe COVID-19 (Bwire et al., 2020).

Nine articles concern hyperinflammatory syndromes seen in children, such as MIS-C, Kawasaki Disease, and PMIS.

Twelve articles concern the impact of COVID-19 on schools and childcare centers, including strategies to mitigate transmission, recommendations for safe re-opening, and the impact of school closures on children's mental health.

Twelve articles discuss breastfeeding in the context of COVID-19, including recommendations for safe breastfeeding and current evidence on the safety of breast milk from mothers with COVID-19. One article in particular documented policy changes in neonatal ICUs across the United States between March and August 2020 in response to novel evidence and guidelines, allowing more mothers with COVID-19 to room-in and directly breastfeed their newborns (Ahmad et al., 2020).

This is by no means an exhaustive list! Look out for our next weekly update Thursday 6 November, 2020.

We also have a specific repository only on COVID-19, Breastfeeding, Infant Feeding, and Breast Milk. The next update for that will be Friday 6 November . If you know anyone who would benefit from these updates, please let me know.

Happy reading!

Mija Ververs

CHIFA Profile: Mija Tesse Cora Ververs is a Health Scientist (CDC), Senior Associate (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, United States. mververs AT jhu.edu