More than half of pregnant women in UK hospitals with covid-19 are from ethnic minorities, study finds

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United Kingdom relaxes its measures before covid-19 2:59

London (CNN) - More than half of pregnant women admitted to UK hospitals with covid-19 belonged to black or other ethnic minority groups, according to a national study published Monday in the medical journal BMJ.

Researchers led by the University of Oxford Nuffield Population Health Department cautioned that although transmission of the virus to infants was rare and most women had "good results," the high proportion of infected women of black origin or minority needs “urgent investigation and explanation”.

A separate government review by Public Health England found last week that members of UK ethnic minority communities are up to 50% more likely to die of coronavirus than their British white peers.

The latest study is based on data from the UK Obstetric Surveillance System, a national system established to study a variety of rare disorders of pregnancy.

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The researchers said that of 427 pregnant women admitted to the hospital with covid-19 between March 1 and April 14, more than half belonged to minority groups, including 25% who were Asian and 22% who were black. .

Most of the women were in their second or third trimester of pregnancy, 70% were overweight or obese, 40% were 35 or older, and a third had pre-existing conditions, the researchers said.

The study noted that while the published evidence on the rate, transmission, and effect of coronavirus infection on pregnancy is limited, some evidence has suggested that pregnant women and their babies are at increased risk for serious illness and death.

However, a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecolocy found that most pregnant women diagnosed with coronavirus do not experience a more serious illness than the general population.

Twelve babies born to mothers in the study tested positive for coronavirus, six of them in the first 12 hours of their lives.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that being black or from an ethnic minority was a "significant" risk factor for covid-19.

In a speech to parliament last week, Hancock said there was "much more work to be done to understand the key factors in these disparities, the relationships between different risk factors, and what we can do to close the gap."

Public Health England's analysis found that the link between ethnicity and health was "complex and likely would be the result of a combination of factors."

"First, people in the BAME [black and ethnic minority] communities are likely to be at increased risk of contracting the infection," the government review said, noting that minorities are more likely to live in urban areas, in overcrowded homes, in private areas, and have jobs that expose them to increased risk.

"People in BAME groups are also more likely to be born abroad than British white people, which means they may face additional barriers to access services created, for example, by language and cultural differences," he added. .

The groups are likely to "also have a higher risk of worse outcomes once they acquire the infection," the agency report found.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also warned that covid-19 had exposed inequalities within society and was having a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities, including people of African descent.

- CNN's Zamira Rahim contributed to this report.

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