Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) During Pregnancy among African Women: Characteristics of Pregnant Woman at the Start of Pandemic in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Introduction: Little work has been done on coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) in pregnant women particularly among African women. Further knowledge is needed to address this gap. During this COVID-19 epidemic, we found and report five (5) confirmed cases of COVID-19 in pregnancy in Burkina Faso. The objective of this study is to describe the clinical characteristics and evolution of COVID-19 among pregnant women that were admitted and treated in hospitals in Ouagadougou. Methodology: This is a case study carried out on COVID-19 care sites in the city of Ouagadougou. All pregnant women admitted between March 9th and June 30th with a positive reverse transcriptase polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) test for SARS- Cov-2 were included in our study population. Results: Five cases of COVID-19 in pregnancy were identified and the mean age of the patients was 27.2 years ± 4.9. The mean gestational age was 20 weeks amenorrhea (WA). Clinically, three (3) patients developed fever, two (2) patients had myalgia, dysphonia, one (1) patient cough, anorexia, asthenia, anosmia and ageusia. Three patients were treated with hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin. The materno-fetal prognosis was good with three virological cures. In one case, there was a persistence of virology and in another case the patient refused the follow-up. Conclusion: The maternofoetal prognosis of women with COVID-19 is good apart from the occurrence of respiratory signs. While there is no reliable evidence to support the possibility of vertical transmission of COVID-19 infection from mother to baby, the infection and inflammation that occurred in response to the viral infection could affect the development of the fetus hence an interest in monitoring the growth of babies.