Seroprevalence of Rubella IgG and IgM Antibodies among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in Federal Teaching Hospital Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria

Aim: Though Rubella is vaccine-preventable and enlisted on the expanded program on immunization (EPI) list, vaccination and testing are not routinely practiced in Ido-Ekiti. There is also paucity of epidemiological data on the prevalence of rubella infection at Ido-Ekiti, hence the study aimed at carrying out a serosurvey to generate epidemiological data for this location.

Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out between October 2018 and January 2019 at the Antenatal Clinic of Federal Teaching Hospital Ido-Ekiti (FETHI), Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Methodology: One hundred and eighty four consenting pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at FETHI were enrolled. Structured questionnaire was administered to collect Sociodemographic data and sera samples were also collected to determine seroprevalence of rubella IgG and IgM antibodies using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Prevalence rate was calculated and chi square value was determined.

Results: Of the 184 sera samples analyzed 176 (95.7%) and 22 (12%) were seropositive for rubella IgG and IgM respectively. Twenty (11%) of those seropositive for IgM were also positive for IgG and only 2(1%) were positive only for IgM. Prevalence rate for IgG was highest among 26-30years (98.3%) and 31-35years (18.8%) for IgM. Age had no-significant effect (p> 0.05) on seroprevalence distribution. In like manner, level of formal education, knowledge of the virus, and occupation had no significant effect (p> 0.05) on prevalence of the virus. However parity significantly (p< 0.05) influenced the pattern of serostatus for both IgG and IgM.

Conclusion: The high prevalence and similar distribution pattern irrespective of sociodemographic features of rubella virus in this study area suggests its endermicity and continuous transmission in the area. This emphasizes the need to implement routine immunization of children and susceptible women of child bearing age against rubella virus.