Covid causes ‘extensive’ damage to placenta

Women who become infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy face higher risks of still birth and death of a child within 28 days of birth, research has shown. And now, a new study shows how. Unlike many disease-causing pathogens that kill the fetus by infecting it directly, the coronavirus causes “widespread and severe” destruction of the placenta that deprives the fetus of oxygen, a team of 44 researchers in 12 countries concluded after examining 64 stillbirths and four neonatal deaths in which the placenta was infected with the virus.