In a conversation with Israel Today, experts try to explain the alarming phenomenon • Prof. Shlomo Mashiach: "The virus is constantly evolving and changing" • Prof. Dror Mevorach: "The British mutation is probably more violent" • Prof. Yariv Yogev: "The disease has become more contagious "Everyone is unanimous - pregnant women should get vaccinated
One fact is undisputed - the third wave of the corona is sharper than its predecessors.
Many young people are now hospitalized alongside adults and at-risk populations.
Severe morbidity rates among pregnant women have also risen.
According to the Ministry of Health, 24 pregnant or maternity women are currently hospitalized, with 10 of them in critical or critical condition, four breathing, two being given high-flow oxygen therapy (HF) and three connected to an Acmo device.
This frightening reality must ask: What is happening here?
Is the British mutation more violent, or perhaps the widespread infection is leading to more young people from at-risk groups being ill?
In a conversation with "Israel Today", three experts try to explain what led to the complex situation in which we find ourselves.
"We go in the dark"
Prof. Shlomo Moshiach, a fertility expert, one of the founders of the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, a veteran teacher of obstetrics and gynecology and a member of the National Council of Obstetrics and Gynecology, says unequivocally that all pregnant women in Israel should be vaccinated immediately.
"First, it is important to note that there is no literature on the corona virus. We are now learning about it all from the beginning and it is evolving differently from anything we have seen to date," he said.
"Ordinary viruses change from necessity to human vaccines, and in Corona the changes are constantly made without clear logic.
"In fact, we go here in the dark. But one thing is clear - when the Chinese breed of corona was the mainstay in the country there were no pregnant women in such a difficult situation. In the first ten months there were a few pregnant women infected. Very few were born by caesarean section, and even then they were not endangered. Haim".
HMOs begin vaccinating pregnant women aged 35 and over // Photo: Shmuel Buharis and Moshe Ben Simhon
According to Prof. Moshiach, "Now the situation is completely different. In some cases we had to perform a life-saving caesarean section on the fetus and mother. Once a caesarean section is performed, it not only saves the fetus, but it also makes it easier for the mother not to carry a baby. Why the virus?" Now more deadly and violent? I do not know why, it is something that still needs to be clarified and learned, but I say that every woman who wants to have a child or is of childbearing age should get vaccinated.This vaccine is harmless, does not pass to the fetus and does not produce any fertility problem. On the other hand, this disease is dangerous, kills and harms severely, so there is no doubt at all here, "he noted.
"I emphasize and say that since you have to wait between doses, every woman should get vaccinated now. Do not wait like some doctors say for the 15th week of pregnancy, because then the woman is already in a position to have a fetus in the body - and it will take a few more weeks. "Disease resistance. This is a real risk and it is unnecessary," he stressed.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Health advised women not to get vaccinated in the first trimester.
"My things are even more true for women undergoing fertility treatments and wanting to get pregnant in old age, for women with preeclampsia, for women with gestational diabetes and for women with overweight - go get vaccinated. I do not say my things based on feeling.
"The Israeli Midwifery Council, the American Midwifery Association, which is one of the most important in the world, and the Israeli Midwifery Association say that women can be given the vaccine. They talk like this to protect themselves, but when there is a drug that harms pregnancy, we forbid "I hope to get vaccinated. I hope the vaccine will protect those who have already been vaccinated against the mutations, which has not been proven, but I certainly say that it protects more than a state of non-vaccination," he stressed.
A 34-year-old mother was connected to an echo machine following a deterioration in her condition // Photo: Sheba Medical Center
Prof. Dror Mevorach, director of the Corona department at Hadassah, states that it is clear that the British mutation is more harmful to both children and pregnant women, but it is currently difficult to determine the cause.
"The British mutation in Israel and around the world is more acute. You see things we did not see in the first and second wave, such as more pregnant women being injured and more children. There is a 15% increase in the number of children injured. We at Hadassah have now opened an intensive care unit for children with four hospitalized children. "In fact, the British mutation is bringing more people from those population groups to the hospitals."
The fundamental question, according to Prof. Mevorach, is whether this mutation is more violent or whether it is simply more contagious and therefore more harmful to humans.
"This question is still difficult to determine," he clarified.
"For example, in another week I will summarize all the corona cases in the three waves so far and I will be smarter myself. But it can be estimated that the virus is also more violent - and affects both young and pregnant women. Here of course the question is what percentage, if the mutation is most harmful. "20% or 50% or 80%, and in any case the question is also how much this happens because of the more significant coefficient of infection of the mutation."
According to Prof. Mevorach, "there is currently no answer to this question, but it is clear that there is a change, that there is more infection, more infections and symptoms that have not been seen before in this disease."
"Everything has changed in the last two months"
Yariv Yogev, professor of gynecology at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Liss Women's and Maternity Hospital at Ichilov Hospital, explains that the British mutation is probably more dangerous for pregnant women. Similar to a 55-year-old woman suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
It must be said that this is typical of the new British breed.
First, it must be said that the corona does not pass to the fetus, does not harm it and does not pose a risk, and if an infant is infected it is infected after birth.
However, although the virus did not cause miscarriages, in the months of the disease there were more preterm births and more caesareans.
But there was no danger of death or harm to the women themselves. "
Menashe Goldis, whose corona patient was hospitalized during pregnancy: "We are at war" // Photo: Shmuel Buharis
Alongside all this, "everything has changed in the last two months. It was probably caused because the disease has become more contagious and there is a combination of mutations. So now there is an increase in the number of young people getting sick and more pregnant women getting infected because most are young. "Examining women who are ill, it turns out that pregnancy is a risk factor for a more serious disease. Most of the severe patients are in the second trimester of pregnancy, because then the fetus is larger and interferes and changes the physiology of breathing because it presses on the diaphragm and more."
"The increase in the serious morbidity of pregnant women is probably due to three reasons: the virus is more contagious, harms young people and is probably more violent," he noted.
"Beyond that, in the last wave there was a gap between the beginning and the closure of schools, and then children became infected in the schools and infected their mothers. The mortality rate in pregnant women is still small even now. To this day, although there were women who were connected to Acme and were actually in danger of death, no woman died for sure from the coronavirus. There was only one young woman in Be'er Sheva "Therefore, it is not at all clear that she died from the virus. In other words, there is indeed an increase in incidence and infection, but the chances of a serious illness are still small," he explained.
Participated in the preparation of the article: Meital Yasur Beit-Or