Congenital and Perinatal Infections

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to dedicate this special issue of Pathogens to Congenital and Perinatal Infections.

Focus: Congenital infections are infections acquired in utero, and perinatal infections are infections acquired during the birth process, and they are a significant cause of fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality and birth complications. Congenitally infected fetuses may have a wide range of clinical manifestations, and they may either not demonstrate signs of fetal infections detectable on the routine antepartum fetal ultrasound examinations or may present with microcephaly, macrocephaly, intracranial calcifications, intrauterine growth retardation, echogenic bowel, pericardial or pleural effusions, ascites, fetal hydrops, hepatosplenomegaly, and even fetal death. Congenitally infected newborn infants may show abnormal growth, developmental anomalies, and multiple other clinical and laboratory abnormalities. They can also not manifest at birth obvious clinical signs of congenital infections; nevertheless, for several of these infections, they may remain at risk for serious long-term sequelae and even death if left undiagnosed and thus untreated. The TORCH acronym is often used to cover some of these congenital and perinatal infections (toxoplasmosis, other (congenital syphilis); rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus/HIV infection); however, the list of maternal infections that can cause congenital and/or perinatal infections is much longer and includes additional infections such as enteroviral infections, parechovirus infections, parvovirus B19 infections, and varicella zoster infections. Maternal arboviral infections such as Chikungunya virus, Zika virus or Dengue virus infections and others can also be associated with serious fetal and/or neonatal outcomes or birth complications.

Scope: In this Special Issue, we would like to invite papers pertinent to these congenital and perinatal infections addressing any of the following topics:

1. Epidemiology of these maternal infections (e.g., including analyses of risk of mother to fetus/child transmission);
2. Epidemiology of these congenital/perinatal infections (e.g., including analyses of the risk of fetal/neonatal infections and/or of symptomatic disease in the fetus and newborn);
3. Prenatal screening strategies for these infections (e.g., epidemiologic studies perusing maternal molecular and/or serologic screening);
4. Empirical evaluation/validation of novel diagnostics and other diagnostic methods (e.g., including point of care tests, molecular/serologic studies, maternal metagenomics cell free DNA, testing perusing Guthrie test cards);
5. Empirical evaluation of prenatal screening strategies (e.g., epidemiologic analyses, decision analysis, outcome-research analyses);
6. Antenatal, perinatal, and neonatal treatment (e.g., epidemiologic observational studies, comparative effectiveness research studies, clinical trials, randomized clinical trials).

We welcome diverse types of study designs, including:

1. Case reports/case series;
2. Prospective and retrospective epidemiologic studies;
3. Observational studies;
4. Clinical trials;
5. Diagnostic studies;
6. Review papers;
7. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses;
8. Decision analyses, economic analyses;
9. Guidelines/position papers.

We welcome studies both from more developed countries and also from less developed countries where several of these congenital/perinatal infections are more prevalent and contribute to a higher burden of disease in children.

Purpose: The goal of this multidisciplinary Special Issue is to increase awareness among OB/GYN providers, maternal–fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, pediatricians, experts in novel diagnostics, and public health policy makers and guideline developers about important issues around congenital and perinatal infections which are often neglected and under-prioritized infectious disease topics. The majority of these congenital and perinatal infections are preventable with prompt implementation of antenatal screening and treatment programs and neonatal screening and treatment accordingly; nevertheless, if left undiagnosed and thus untreated, they can have devastating sequelae for the fetus and newborn.

Special Issue on Congenital and Neonatal Infections in the context of the existing literature: We would like to accumulate the latest experience on the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of these infections.

Prof. Dr. Despina Contopoulos-Ioannidis, MD
Dr. Jose G. Montoya
Guest Editor

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• congenital infections
• perinatal infections
• congenital toxoplasmosis
• congenital rubella
• congenital cytomegalovirus infections
• congenital syphilis
• neonatal herpes
• neonatal enteroviral and parechovirus infections
• maternal/perinatal arboviral infections
• mother-to-child transmission
• maternal–fetal transmission
• prenatal screening
• prenatal and neonatal diagnosis
• antenatal and neonatal treatment