Seroprevalence of Cytomegalovirus among Pregnant Women in Kassala State

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most important cause of congenital abnormalities. It is highly prevalent in human population in many parts of the world. Exposure to this virus for the first time during pregnancy may have a higher risk of miscarriage. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Cytomegalovirus among pregnant women in Kassala State. A total of 91 pregnant women with or without a history of abortion were included in this study. Of them, 29 (31.9%) were pregnant women with history of abortion, while 62 (68.1%) were pregnant women without history of abortion. Five ml of blood specimens were collected from each participated women dispensed into sterile EDTA blood container to obtain the plasma by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 5 minutes. The sera examined for the presence of CMV IgG antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The result showed that out of 91 blood specimens investigated, 89 (97.8%) were positive for CMV. In this study, there was insignificant relationship between CMV IgG and age, history of abortion and insignificant association between gestation stage and IgG result (P.value >0.05) , this is mainly due to sample size. The study concluded that the seroprevalence of CMV infections among pregnant women in Kassala State was high. Further studies with large numbers of participants and more advanced techniques are required to validate the results of this study.