Sero-prevalence of TORCH among pregnant and non-pregnant women by ELISA and one step TORCH assay in Erbil city of Kurdistan region, Iraq

Abstract EN

The present study was conducted to detect the sero-prevalence of anti-TORCH antibodies (Toxoplasma gondii, Rubella virus, Cytomegalovirus, Herpes simplex virus type-II) among pregnant and non-pregnant women from different ages (18≥48 years) in Erbil city and their relation with age and infertility, by using ELISA (Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) and One-step TORCH assay.

A total of 313 sera samples (150 pregnant and 90 women were suffering from infertility and 73 fertile non-pregnant) were enrolled in the study.

In the age group 18-27 years showed the highest seropositive IgG by ELISA test, were 21, 20, 17 and 13% for Rubella, CMV, HSV-II and Toxoplasma gondii, respectively.

The seropositive for ELISA TORCH –IgM test/seropositive for one step TORCH- IgM test was 45/14% The comparison of ELISA test with one-step TORCH test for detection acute TORCH infections was significant.

Hence, it could be concluded that ELISA test is more efficacious than One-step TORCH test and There are no significant differences among ages with the TORCH infection.

Also, in infertility cases high rate of T.

gondii was observed among other TORCH groups.