Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the continuation of our previous special issue "Viral Infections Acquired in Pregnancy and through Breastfeeding: Novel Approaches to an Old Paradigm".

Infections in pregnancy and during breastfeeding have traditionally been under-investigated and under-reported in the medical scientific literature. There are large gaps in the understanding of many facets of viral infections in pregnancy including pathogenesis, vertical transmission, severity, therapy, and immunization. A triad of factors—mother, infant, and placenta—is intricately related and poorly characterised. There is a paucity of data in the medical literature on the treatment of these infections due to the near systematic exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women from medical trials due to a fear of complications. This creates a lack of knowledge on pregnant women and unborn and recently born children and results in clinicians using therapies that may be below the standard of care or uncharacterised due to a lack of data.

This paradigm in clinical trial research is shifting, and attitudes towards the inclusion of pregnant woman in research are changing, for example, new data on vaccinations in dengue fever and zika have been published. For this Special Issue of Microorganisms, we invite authors to submit original research papers, case series, and reviews of current literature on all aspects of viral infections in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Papers on all relevant categories are welcome including blood-borne viruses, HIV, hepatitis, and vector borne infections like dengue fever, zika, tick borne encephalitis, West Nile virus, and Japanese encephalitis. We also welcome submissions on pandemic and seasonal viral infections like influenza, enteroviruses and COVID-19 and TORCH related viruses, such as CMV, HSV, VZV, and parvovirus. This list is in no way exhaustive, and interesting cases of lesser described viral infections are welcome.

I believe this is the time to concentrate on and describe the current landscape of research on viral infections in pregnancy and breastfeeding. We aim to create a forum to describe novel ways to foster a better understanding of manifestations in pregnancy, treatment in pregnancy, and how we should embrace new research initiatives for this very critical neglected population.

Dr. John Lambert
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.