Enterovirus in pregnant women and the perfused placenta

A survey of all nonpolio enterovirus infections in adults for a 10-year period revealed that most such infections will occur in the child-bearing age group during the third quarter of the year. Coxsackieviruses occurred more often than echovirus infection. Fourteen pregnant women, including four with meningitis, who had an enterovirus infection from 16 to 37 weeks of gestation delivered uninfected, healthy infants. Attempts to demonstrate transplacental passage of Coxsackie B-3 or ECHO-11 viruses by use of the dual, recirculating, in vitro perfusion of an isolated placental lobule were unsuccessful even with a maternal virus input of 200,000 median tissue culture infectious doses. This suggests that transplacental passage of virus does not occur readily, and that most neonates of infected mothers will be unharmed.