Protecting pregnant women and their babies has been a priority in Cuba since COVID-19 began to spread around the world. And although, unfortunately, in 2021, 93 of them died during the worst moments of the pandemic peak faced by our country, once vaccination was started in this risk group, that indicator was reduced to zero, and greater protection of the lives of pregnant women and unborn babies was achieved.
This is confirmed by the historical figures of the epidemic in the Greater Antilles, as well as by the safety and immunogenicity evaluation carried out in 940 obstetric patients who received three doses of the Abdala vaccine, as part of a research carried out in five maternity hospitals in Havana.
These results -which were presented at the meeting of experts and scientists on health issues, headed by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez- showed that 92.6% of the pregnant women studied were not infected with COVID-19, and out of the 6% who were, only 0.4% had moderate disease, and the rest had mild disease.
In presenting the study, Dr. Jorge Aguilar Estrada, head of the Teaching Department of the Ramón González Coro Gynecobstetric Hospital, explained that in none of the cases were there any serious adverse events related to the vaccination.
According to the results obtained, he assured that "the levels of antibodies detected in maternal serum, umbilical cord and colostrum were high, with high levels of inhibition of the virus, which confers protection against SARS-COV-2, both to the mother and her baby".
For her part, Dr. Idania Baladrón Castrillo, vice-president of the Cuban Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, stressed that the study carried out in this case was observational, not a clinical study. It is a study -she said- that has been done in real life conditions, during the Health intervention to pregnant women.
"The vaccination has been not only safe, but also of great benefit to our patients," she said. Being an observational and non-clinical study, the greatest scientific evidence is in its contribution to be able to detect signs that could be considered negative and, in turn, to make certain recommendations, to continue advancing in the process.
It was possible to confirm, she said, that in any trimester that the woman is vaccinated there will be benefits for both her and the unborn child, being the most favorable moment around the 22nd week of pregnancy.
At the end of the presentation, President Díaz-Canel asked the scientists if these results would now change the vaccination protocols for pregnant women, to which they assured that "based on them it was possible to adjust the protocols as they went along.
"There is already a significant number of pregnant women with booster doses, which will result in fewer positive cases in mothers and children under two years of age, who are those who have not been vaccinated," said the First Deputy Minister of Public Health, Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández.
These results, according to Ileana Morales Suárez, Director of Science, Innovation and Technology of the Ministry of Public Health, support the decision "not to vaccinate children under two years of age, since it has been shown that, both through breast milk and through everything that the mother manages to transmit to the baby, the baby acquires a level of immunity".
JUSVINZA AND ITS BENEFITS FOR OBSTETRIC PATIENTS
Considering that pregnant women are a special risk group, due to the changes happening in their organism during this period, several alternatives were used for their protection during the epidemic in Cuba. More than 7,000 pregnant women were infected in the country between 2020 and 2021, the vast majority of them in the last year, in which 631 were reported as severe or critical and, unfortunately, 93 died.
As explained at the meeting by the specialist in Gynecobstetrics, Dr. Anadys Segura Fernandez, from the Dr. Luis Diaz Soto Central Military Hospital - this was the reference center in the country to treat serious and critical pregnant women infected with the virus -, among the multiple actions carried out at that time to protect them, was the introduction in the protocols of innovative BioCubaFarma products, as is the case of Jusvinza, which has an anti-inflammatory action, and had already demonstrated safety and effectiveness in adult patients with COVID-19.
Those results, he confirmed, allowed the drug to be authorized for use in obstetric patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
"In none of the patients who presented moderate or severe disease, and who were treated with Jusvinza, did the disease progress to more severe forms," he said.
This, he reflected, is one of the main results obtained with the use of this drug, to which are added a "clinical and radiological improvement, as well as the reduction of biomarkers of inflammation, compared to patients not treated with this drug."
In no case, he stressed, were adverse effects attributable to the use of the drug identified.
Among the prospects for the use of this drug, he detailed that its application is planned in severe and critical patients with hyperinflammation without SARS-COV-2 infection, recurrent miscarriages, pre-eclampsia-eclampsia syndrome, endometriosis, and pregnant women with antiphospholipid syndrome.
These two issues that we have seen today -valued the President of the Republic- continue to show that "the use of Cuban medicines, now in more specific treatments in pregnant women, give results that are also remarkable".
Hence the insistence of the Head of State to keep working on these issues and validating the results that are being obtained, so that "the entire field in which these medicines can work with benefits" can be appreciated.
Our products continue to give good results, as well as our vaccines, said the President, and that "is good for us and is good for the world".
