Seroprevalence of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) among Pregnant Women Accessing Antenatal Care in a Tertiary Healthcare Facility in Central Nigeria

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infections is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections worldwide. Due to lack of documented HSV-2 studies among pregnant women in the study area, a detailed cross-sectional study was therefore carried out to evaluate the prevalence of HSV-2 infection among pregnant women accessing antenatal care in Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nigeria. After ethical clearance, blood samples were aseptically collected from 220 pregnant women who gave informed consent and completed a self-administered questionnaire. Blood samples were screened for HSV-2 specific IgG antibody using an Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test kit (Cortez Diagnostic Inc, USA). The Chi-square test was performed to identify possible risk factors associated with the viral seropositivity. Overall, 78 (35.5%) had IgG antibodies against HSV-2. Participants aged < 20 years old recorded a highest prevalence of 38.1%, while the lowest prevalence (29.3%) was recorded in those aged 31-40 years old (p> 0.05). There was a statistically significant association between the seroprevalence of HSV-2 in pregnant women in relation to occupation. Pregnant women who are full housewives had the highest prevalence (68.9%) of the infection, followed by others (33.3%), farmers (31.0%) while the least prevalence (5.3%) was recorded among civil servants. However, in this study, educational status, parity, stage of pregnancy and history of blood transfusion had no statistically significant association with HSV-2 infection (p > 0.05) but there was arithmetic difference in most of the risk factors. A high prevalence of the viral infection was reported in this study. Therefore, type-specific serologic tests might be useful for identifying pregnant women at risk for HSV infection and guiding counseling regarding the risk for acquiring genital herpes during pregnancy are suggested.