By Eduardo Simões
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil asked women on Friday to get pregnant until the worst of the pandemic passes, saying the virus variant that is devastating the South American country appears to be affecting pregnant mothers more than earlier versions of the coronavirus.
The recommendation comes because Brazil is still one of the biggest hubs of the pandemic, and more Brazilians are dying from the virus every day than anywhere else in the world.
Hospitals are under pressure and supplies of drugs needed for the intubation of seriously ill patients are becoming dangerous, and Brazil is turning to international partners for help with emergency supplies.
“If possible, postpone the pregnancy a bit until a better moment,” Health Council official Raphael Parente told a news conference on Friday.
He said the recommendation was due in part to the strain on the health system, but also to the more easily transmissible Brazilian variant known as P.1.
“The clinical experience of specialists shows that this new variant acts more aggressively in pregnant women,” Parente said.
Previously, COVID-19 cases during pregnancy focused on the final trimester and birth, while recently, more serious cases have occurred in the second and sometimes first trimester.
Parente did not give more details.
The P.1 variant, first discovered in Manaus in the Amazon, quickly became popular in Brazil. It is considered a major factor behind a massive second wave of infections that brought the country’s death toll to more than 350,000 – the second highest in the world behind the United States.
The outbreak in Brazil is increasingly affecting younger people, and hospital data show that more than half of all patients were in intensive care in March 40 or younger.
President Jair Bolsonaro opposed exclusions and held large events in which he often did not wear a mask. He recently accepted vaccines as a possible solution, but vaccination vaccination has been plagued by delays and missed targets to get people vaccinated.
According to local media, there were strikes in several cities this week due to a shortage of vaccine.
The increase in COID-19 cases also did not provide hospitals with sedatives needed for patients in need of mechanical ventilation.
An emergency shipment of the drugs arrived late on Thursday from Brazil, while donations from Spain are expected to arrive next week.
Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have both sounded alarms due to shortages, while Sao Paulo’s health secretary said this week that the city’s ability to care for seriously ill COVID-19 patients is on the verge of collapse.
Despite the shortage of drugs and 85% of the intensive care beds, Sao Paulo announced on Friday that it would reopen shops and restaurants, saying the number of new hospitalizations had dropped sufficiently to make it safe.
(Report by Eduardo Simoes, written by Stephen Eisenhammer; Edited by Bill Berkrot)