seroprevalence of zika virus igm antibodies in pregnant woman in nigeria

Backgrounds: in developing countries like nigeria, screening of zika virus (zikv) infection in pregnant women remains limited due to a lack of diagnostic facilities and non-specific symptoms, leading to potential misdiagnosis of the disease as other febrile illnesses such as malaria or typhoid. materials & methods: to address this issue, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anti-zikv igm antibodies in pregnant women using enzyme-linked immunoassay. additionally, the quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-qpcr) assay targeted a specific region of the membrane protein (prm) gene to detect zika virus presence in the collected serum samples. for a period of four months from december 2021 to march 2022, a total of 360 serum samples were collected from pregnant women attending antenatal care units in two tertiary hospitals located in different regions of nigeria. findings: the results of this study revealed a prevalence of 17.2% (62 samples) for anti-zikv igm antibodies among pregnant women. further analysis using the rt-qpcr method detected zika virus (prm gene) in 1.9% (7/62) of the serum samples. in addition to these virological results, the statistical analysis of sociodemographic data, clinical characteristics, and risk factors for zikv infection demonstrated a significant correlation between seropositivity and various factors including ethnicity, residence, occupation, and history of arboviral diseases (p< .005). conclusion: given the potential consequences of zikv infection in pregnant women, early diagnosis and intervention could improve maternal outcomes and prevent fetal abnormalities.