Ananya Gupta, Parul Jain, Amita Jain
Background and objectives: The acute infection caused by rubella virus during pregnancy sometimes leads to adverse fetal outcomes including congenital rubella syndrome. Data on prevalence of rubella among pregnant women is inadequate from India. Therefore, the present cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of rubella among pregnant women in Lucknow region of North India.
Methods: Pregnant women visiting antenatal clinics were examined for the presence of anti-rubella virus IgG antibodies using commercially available ELISA kits.
Results: Of the total 152 pregnant women enrolled in the study, 134 (88.2%) women were positive for anti-rubella virus IgG antibodies. The difference in seropositivity and geometric mean titers of anti-rubella virus IgG antibodies among different age groups of pregnant women was not statistically significant (p-value: 0.35 and 0.83 respectively). No relationship was observed between parity and anti-rubella virus IgG positivity (p-value: 0.23).
