Qatar PREgnancy Covid-19 OUtcome Study

The coronavirus disease 2019 or 'COVID-19' is a respiratory tract infection caused by the novel coronavirus strain initially (1). On 12th March 2020, the World Health Organization declared it as a 'pandemic' outbreak of utmost international concern. The majority of the published evidence has originated from China, where the first coronavirus patient was identified in Wuhan City in December 2019 (2,3). Previous emerging infections such as H1N1 influenza virus, Zika virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERSCoV) have been shown to have a significant impact on maternal as well as perinatal outcomes (4,5). The obstetrical population is considered vulnerable. Pregnancy involves multiple interactions with the health care system and eventually all are admitted to the hospital for delivery, therefore, managing the pregnant population presents a unique challenge during this pandemic. Additionally, the physiological changes and partial immune suppression during pregnancy make pregnant women and newborn babies susceptible to several infections. Post-partum hemorrhage, maternal sepsis, preeclampsia, premature rupture of the membrane are the most common adverse events reported to have been caused by this disease in pregnant women (11). From the limited information gathered about the novel coronavirus, its impact on pregnancy and newborn, and the drastically increasing burden of the disease, it is vital that scientific information concerning the disease is collected and shared in a concise and practical manner. Hence, there is a need to collect case data rapidly, to pool global data on the natural history of women affected by suspected COVID-19 or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy to inform treatment and implement preventative strategies in this and future outbreaks. A center-based registry, gathering case data prospectively on the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection from healthcare systems around the world offers a method to accrue clinical outcomes on key research questions from a variety of populations, and the Q- PRECIOS register will serve such purpose.