Seroprevalence of human Alphaherpesvirus 1 and 2 among pregnant women infected or uninfected with Zika virus from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Pregnant women are an important group to be monitored for infection due to the risk of transmitting infections to their babies. Both HSV and ZIKV are neurotrophic viruses that can be transmitted congenitally. In this study, the prevalence and risk factors of HSV among Zika-positive and -negative pregnant women from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were evaluated and compared. About 167 serum samples included in our study were from pregnant women with ZIKV infection symptoms, who were attended in different hospitals in Rio de Janeiro between November, 2015 to February, 2016. Blood samples collected from 167 pregnant women were used for this study. The presence of HSV antibodies and viremia were evaluated by commercial ELISA and quantitative real time PCR analyses, respectively. The data obtained from medical records were statistically analysed. The HSV-1 and HSV-2 prevalence among pregnant women was 80.2 and 12.5% for Zika-positive women and 84.5 and 5.6% for Zika-negative women, respectively. None of the pregnant women exhibited HSV viremia. Age, trimester of gestation and skin colour were associated with HSV-1 and HSV-2 prevalence among the groups studied. HSV-2 was more prevalent in Zika-positive pregnant women than in Zika-negative pregnant women, and this simultaneous infection should be better investigated in future studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.