Occurrence of Parvovirus b19 Infection Among Pregnant Women in Lagos, Nigeria

Infections with B19V have been associated with fetal loss, acute arthritis and arthralgia as well as chronic anemia in immunodeficient persons. Pregnant women infected with B19V have 30% chance of transmission to the foetus. This study was carried out to ascertain the occurrence of current or recent infections with B19V among pregnant women in Lagos.
Methods: A commercially available Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay Kit (Parvovirus B19 RIDASCREEN biopharma. Germany) was used to analyze 93 serum samples collected from pregnant women in Lagos, aged between 18 and 35 years.
Results: A total of ninety three (93) samples were analysed and 35 samples (37.6%) were positive for virus specific IgM antibody. B19V IgM seropositivity was found to be highest in the 26-30 years age group with 20 samples (44.4%) tested positive. The lowest B19V seropositivity (0%) was found among the 16-20 years age group where no positive case was recorded. The highest frequencies of 50% and 30% were recorded among women in their 2nd and 3rd trimesters respectively.
Conclusion: The active infection of B19V among pregnant women exist in Lagos, and the high incidence of this infection among the women in their first and second trimesters of pregnancy may have some serious implications on the outcomes of these pregnancies. Hence, the need to take practical steps to ensuring that transmission of B19V is curbed.