WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Amina Qassim Yahiya*, Sahbaa Kablan Al Obady and Reem Luqman Milhim

ABSTRACT

Background: TORCH infection complex during pregnancy has bad obstetric outcomes starting from low birth weight to congenital anomalies, sensory neural deafness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and sometimes to fatal outcomes like abortion and still birth. As these diseases remain mostly asymptomatic these are rarely tested during pregnancy. Serology is the mainstay of diagnosing these infections. Aim: To describe maternal death in Nehnawa governorate during 2018. Methods: A cross sectional study was undertaken to estimate the burden of these infections among pregnant women in Mosul city. A total number 300 antenatal cases were screened by ELISA test for presence of IgM antibodies against toxoplasma, rubella virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV). Result: It was found that herpes is the most predominant infection being positive IgM in 25, 3% of pregnant women having bad obstetric history and 21, 4% of pregnant women with no bad obstetric history, followed by a combination of infection between CMV and Herpes 20,5% among women having BOH and 13% among pregnant women with no BOH, Toxoplasmosis IgM positive found in 12, 32% of pregnant women with BOH and 7, 8% of pregnant women with no BOH, Rubella IgM positive in 10, 3% of pregnant women with BOH and 2, 6% among those with no BOH. Those pregnant women with BOH had 28.1% of all negative IgM titer, while 48.7% of pregnant women with no BOH had all negative IgM titer. Conclusion: This study showed that most of the infections have occurred by 18years of age and before or during the 1 st pregnancy. It is less common among the antenatal cases who have better education and have spouses servicing in private or government sectors signifying the more health and sanitation awareness among this group.