By AFP More by this AuthorFoetuses are rarely infected with Covid-19 because the placenta produces very small amounts of the receptor that the coronavirus latches on to when it invades human cells, according to a study. The placenta's genetic material also lacked the instructions to make an enzyme, called TMPRSS2, that SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter a cell. Advertisement"The molecules that are required to make the cells susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection are rarely expressed in the placenta," Romero told AFP. But the overall prevalence of such transmission is thought to be extremely rare -- on the order of two percent or less. Romero's team wrote in their paper that SARS-CoV-2 might infect foetuses by interacting with other proteins, not the ones they looked for -- but further research was needed.

Source: Daily Nation July 16, 2020 11:35 UTC