Pregnant women are at greater risk of more serious complications but are routinely excluded from research
16 December 2020 • 11:30pm
Pregnant women are routinely excluded from trials
Credit: Dobrila Vignjevic /iStockphoto
Leading researchers have backed calls for pregnant women to be included in trials for Covid-19 treatments, warning they are at higher risk of more serious complications of the disease.
A study in the Lancet Global Health reviewed nearly 900 clinical trials into treatments for the virus and found that around three quarters explicitly exclude pregnant women - this is despite the fact that many are testing existing drugs that have already been shown to be safe for mothers and their unborn babies.