Dengue virus among HIV-infected pregnant women attending antenatal care in Luanda, Angola: An emerging public health concern

The dissemination of the dengue virus (DENV) in endemic regions with HIV is a public health concern with greater importance when there is evidence of vertical transmission of DENV during pregnancy. Herein, we investigated DENV among HIV-infected pregnant women in Luanda, the capital city of Angola....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cruz S. Sebastião, Zoraima Neto, Domingos Jandondo, Marinela Mirandela, Joana Morais, Miguel Brito
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-09-01
Series:Scientific African
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227622002630
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Summary:The dissemination of the dengue virus (DENV) in endemic regions with HIV is a public health concern with greater importance when there is evidence of vertical transmission of DENV during pregnancy. Herein, we investigated DENV among HIV-infected pregnant women in Luanda, the capital city of Angola. This was part of a cross-sectional study carried out on 42 pregnant women newly diagnosed with HIV. A total of 36 plasma samples from the 42 HIV-positive pregnant women were screened for DENV using RT‐PCR and ELISA. None of the specimens tested positive for DENV by RT-PCR. Regarding seroprevalence, 94.4% of the samples were positive for IgG and 11.1% for IgM. Recent infection (IgG-/IgM+ or IgG+/IgM+) was detected in 11.1% of the samples and past infection (IgG+/IgM-) in 83.3%. The risk of recent infection was higher in pregnant women over 25 years of age [OR: 13.0 (95% CI: 1.14–148), p = 0.039]. Our study showed laboratory evidence of a recent DENV infection among HIV-infected pregnant women attending antenatal care in Luanda. Our findings provide critical data regarding DENV infection among HIV-infected pregnant women in Luanda. Future studies involving a larger sample size of HIV-infected pregnant women are necessary to support ongoing public health programs to combat arboviruses in Angola.
ISSN:2468-2276