Author(s): Sebastião, Cruz S. ; Neto, Zoraima ; Jandondo, Domingos ; Mirandela, Marinela ; Morais, Joana ; Brito, Miguel
Date: 2022
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/14957
Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
Subject(s): Dengue virus; HIV infection; Seroprevalence; Pregnant women; Angola; Luanda
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.
