Approach to intrapartum fever during the COVID-19 pandemic: A New York City Hospital experience

Aimee Parow; Julia Cron; Szilvia Nagy; Lisa Saiman; Harjot K Singh

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2024.04.002

Approach to intrapartum fever during the COVID-19 pandemic: A New York City Hospital experience

Am J Infect Control. 2024 Apr 5:S0196-6553(24)00166-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2024.04.002. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Aimee Parow¹, Julia Cron², Szilvia Nagy², Lisa Saiman³, Harjot K Singh⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY. Electronic address: aip9008@med.cornell.edu.
² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.

PMID: 38583775
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2024.04.002

Abstract

The yield of repeat severe acute respiratory syndrome coronovirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing for intrapartum fever in patients admitted to labor and delivery negative for SARS-CoV-2 on admission testing is unknown. From October 2020 to June 2022, we performed a retrospective study of 151/3,168 (4.8%) patients who had repeat testing for intrapartum fever. One (0.7%) patient was SARS-CoV-2-positive suggesting repeat SARS-CoV-2 testing for intrapartum fever is generally not warranted nor is separating birthing dyads while awaiting test results.

Keywords: Birthing dyad separation; Infection prevention and control; SARS-CoV-2 testing.