Gynecology & Obstetrics
Open Access

Abstract

Seroprevalence and Absence of Cytomegalovirus Infection Risk Factors among Pregnant Women in St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College

Yeshwondm Mamuye, Balkachew Nigatu, Delayehu Bekele, Feyisa Challa, Adinew Desale and Semaria Solomon

Background: The human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the major causes of congenital infections. Maternal infection poses the risk of congenital CMV infection and occurs in 0.5%-22% of all life births. CMV is more widespread in developing countries and in communities with lower socioeconomic status.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of CMV infection and identify risk factors of CMV seropositivity.

Method: Using cross sectional study design a total of 200 pregnant women were consecutively recruited from ANC attendees from June to July 2014. Blood samples were collected from all study participants and structured questionnaire was introduced to gather socio-demographic and risk factor related data. ELISA was used to detect anti-CMV IgG and IgM. SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data, and regression was also applied to see the strength of association.

Results: Out of 200 participants CMV-IgG and CMV-IgM were detected from 177 (88.5%), and 31 (15.5%) respectively. Women who were immune/positive only for IgG were 147 (73.5%). The second group was those who had primary infection {IgG (+) plus IgM (+)} and this consisted of 30 (15.0%) participants. Eleven percent of those participants had no anti-CMV infection. In the last category, one pregnant woman was identified as having a recent primary infection. There was no statistical significant factor detected between CMV positivity rate with any obstetrical, and socio-demographical characteristic (P-value<0.05).

Conclusion: This study provides recent information regarding CMV seroprevalence. Despite the high rate of seropositivity, the importance of CMV testing during pregnancy should not be undermined. A comprehensive study with a long term follow-up examination of pregnant women and their offspring born to CMV IgM-positive mothers may be required for estimation of symptomatic congenital infection.