Seroprevalence of Rubella IgM and IgG Antibodies and Associated Risk Factors among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic at Bafoussam Regional Hospital, West Region of Cameroon

Background: Rubella is a contagious vaccine-preventable viral infection.Its etiologic agent, Rubella virus has been identified as a human teratogen capable of causing a spectrum of birth defects known as Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) if the infection occurs within the first trimester of pregnancy.Rubella continues to be a serious public health problem in developing countries.This study focused to find out the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with Rubella infection in pregnant women at the Bafoussam Regional Hospital. Materials and Methods:This was a cross-sectional study carried out among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic.Clinicians carried out screening of 91 pregnant women for Rubella IgG and IgM antibodies from July to September 2016, using sandwich ELISA kit (SinoBiological Inc, India).A questionnaire captured known risk factors for Rubella among all participants.Risk factors for Rubella were analyzed in a binary logistic model in which not being positive for Rubella was considered the reference condition.Odd ratios calculated at 95% CI, were used to measure the strength of association between the risk factors and Rubella antibodies seropositivity.A p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Of the 91 pregnant women who accepted to participate in the study, 93.40% (85/91) were seropositive for Rubella IgM and IgG antibodies.Among the Rubella seropositive women, 87.91% (80/91), 5.49% (5/91) and 5.49% (5/91) were seropositive for IgG antibody, IgM antibody, and both IgM and IgG antibodies respectively.Among the risks factors evaluated, none was found to be an independent risk factor of Rubella infection. Conclusions:The findings from this study show that Rubella virus is circulating in the study area and more women have been and are perhaps still being exposed to this potentially hazardous childbearing age infection and there is a need to inform them on how they could protect themselves from contracting this virus.