Ebola Virus Disease in Pregnancy: Clinical, Histopathologic and Immunohistochemical Findings

Abstract

Here we describe clinicopathologic features of EVD in pregnancy. One woman infected with Sudan virus in Gulu, Uganda in 2000 had a stillbirth and survived, and another woman with Bundibugyo virus had a livebirth with maternal and infant death in Isiro, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2012. Ebolavirus antigen was seen in the syncytiotrophoblast and placental maternal mononuclear cells by immunohistochemistry, and no antigen was seen in fetal placental stromal cells or fetal organs. In the Gulu case, ebolavirus antigen localized to malaria pigment-laden macrophages. These data suggest trophoblast infection may be a mechanism of transplacental ebolavirus transmission.