Seroprevalence of Human Cytomegalovirus Infection among Pregnant Women Attending Ante-Natal Clinic at Federal Teaching Hospital Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

Background: Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection inpregnancy, especially in the first trimester often lead to congenitalabnormalities and is associated with serious complications, such asmicrocephaly, mental retardation, spastic paralysis, hepatosplenomegaly,anaemia, thrombocytopenia, deafness, and optic nerve atrophy leading toblindness in infants. These conditions are threats to accomplishing thesustainable developmental goal three (To ensure healthy lives and promotewell-being for all at all ages) as there are not deliberate measures put inplace to track and manage the virus in Ido-Ekiti and environs. This presentstudy evaluated the seroprevalence of the virus among pregnant women attendingantenatal clinic at Federal Teaching Hospital Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.

Method: A total of one hundred and sixteen (116) pregnantwomen were examined in this study. The subjects were administered a structuredquestionnaire to obtain demographic and risk data. Five millimeters (5 ml) ofblood samples were collected from consenting subjects to obtain sera which wereanalyzed for the presence of CMV IgG and IgM antibodies using Enzyme linkedimmunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Avidity testing was also carried outusing ELISA.

Results: Results obtained from this study showed prevalenceof 87.9% and 7.8% for IgG and IgM respectively. Samples that tested positivefor both IgG and IgM were 6.0%. These samples were examined for avidity toevaluate strength of the IgG antibodies. Those with avidity index >35% were28.6% showing IgG antibody predominance, while those with avidity index < orequal to 35% were 71.4% indicating that IgM was the predominant antibody. Asignificant (p<0.05) number of the pregnant women recorded the presence ofIgG and IgM antibody to the virus. There was no statistical significance(p>0.05) difference between the prevalence of CMV IgG antibody across ageranges, number of pregnancies, miscarriages, marital status, trimester, stillbirth and transfusion.

Conclusion: With the information provided in this study,there is need for the adoption of CMV screening into the antenatal profiletests, more public awareness of the virus to educate the general publicespecially women on how it is acquired and contributing factors like personaland community hygiene as preventive approaches to avert future consequences.