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. 2023 Dec:169:105616.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2023.105616. Epub 2023 Nov 3.

Arbovirus surveillance in pregnant women in north-central Nigeria, 2019-2022

Jerry Ogwuche  1 , Charlotte Ajeong Chang  2 , Olukemi Ige  3 , Atiene S Sagay  3 , Beth Chaplin  2 , Makshwar L Kahansim  3 , Michael Paul  3 , Michael Elujoba  1 , Godwin Imade  3 , Georgenia Kweashi  1 , Yu-Ching Dai  4 , Szu-Chia Hsieh  4 , Wei-Kung Wang  4 , Donald J Hamel  2 , Phyllis J Kanki  5
Affiliations

Arbovirus surveillance in pregnant women in north-central Nigeria, 2019-2022

Jerry Ogwuche et al. J Clin Virol. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Background: The adverse impact of Zika (ZIKV), dengue (DENV), and chikungunya (CHIKV) virus infection in pregnancy has been recognized in Latin America and Asia but is not well studied in Africa. Although originally discovered in sub-Saharan Africa the non-specific clinical presentation of arbovirus infection may have hampered our detection of adverse clinical outcomes and outbreak.

Objective: This prospective study of arbovirus infection in pregnant women in north-central Nigeria sought to characterize the prevalence of acute arbovirus infection and determine the impact on pregnancy and infant outcomes.

Methods: In Nigeria, we screened 1006 pregnant women for ZIKV, DENV and CHIKV IgM/IgG by rapid test (2019-2022). Women with acute infection were recruited for prospective study and infants were examined for any abnormalities from delivery through six months. A subset of rapid test-reactive samples were confirmed using virus-specific ELISAs and neutralization assays.

Results: The prevalence of acute infection (IgM+) was 3.8 %, 9.9 % and 11.8 % for ZIKV, DENV and CHIKV, respectively; co-infections represented 24.5 % of all infections. The prevalence in asymptomatic women was twice the level of symptomatic infection. We found a significant association between acute maternal ZIKV/DENV/CHIKV infection and any gross abnormal birth outcome (p = 0.014).

Conclusions: Over three rainy seasons, regular acute infection with ZIKV, DENV, and CHIKV was observed with significantly higher rates in pregnant women without symptoms. The potential association arbovirus infection with abnormal birth outcome warrants further prospective study to ascertain the clinical significance of these endemic arboviruses in Africa.

Keywords: Arbovirus; Chikungunya virus; Dengue; Microcephaly; Nigeria; Pregnancy; West Africa; Zika.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
ZIKV, DENV and CHIKV Seroprevalence Venn diagram of acute (IgM) arbovirus status. Women with any IgM reactivity (200, 19.9%) by arbovirus.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Acute arbovirus infection (2019–22) Seroprevalence (left axis) and number of women tested (right axis); rainy season indicated by rain cloud. Acute CHKV (red), DENV (green), ZIKV (blue) and Total (grey) infections
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Update of

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