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Background Varicella during pregnancy can lead to serious maternal and fetal consequences. Although an effective vaccine is available it is not incorporated in to the routine vaccination programs in most of the Asian countries. Objectives of the study were to determine the susceptibility to varicella and factors associated with immunity, among a group of pregnant women attending to a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka. Methods A hospital based descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at De Soyza maternity Hospital, Colombo. A sample of 385 pregnant women was selected. Data were collected through an interviewer administered questionnaire; presence of varicella IgG in blood was assessed by a validated commercial ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay. Results The sample had a mean age of 28.5 years and majority was educated beyond General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level. We found that 34% of study population was susceptible for the infection. A past history of varicella had a 89.5% positive predictive value and 53.1% negative predictive value for varicella immunity. Varicella sero-positivity was only associated with a lower educational level and number of childhood household members more than four. There was no association of sero-positivity with age. Conclusion This study demonstrates that a significant proportion of pregnant women of the study population are varicella-susceptible. Pre-pregnancy screening and preventive strategies including vaccination should be evaluated. History of past varicella infection could be a useful screening tool to exclude patients for vaccination. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-019-3996-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Introduction BK virus nephropathy (BKVN) is an important cause of graft failure in post renal transplant patients. Detection of BK virus replication early enables prevention of BK virus nephropathy. Understanding BK virus epidemiology in post renal transplant patients will be useful in implementing a routine screening programme. Objectives Objectives were to determine the prevalence of BK virus viruria and viraemia among post renal transplant patients within the first two years of transplantation. Methodology A hospital-based, descriptive crosssectional study was conducted on 136 clinic and inward patients. Plasma and urine were tested for BK virus DNA using real time PCR. Serum creatinine done within two weeks of data collection was recorded. Results The prevalence of BK virus viruria was 53.67% and viraemia was 11%. Viraemia >1000 copies/ml was associated with abnormal serum creatinine and higher median serum creatinine. No similar association was observed with viruria. Among patients with normal serum creatinine, virus was not detected in urine in 48.9% and plasma in 92.7%. Conclusions The prevalence of BK virus is high in this study population. Significant viraemia was associated with elevated serum creatinine. Viruria or viraemia was not detected among a large number of patients with normal serum creatinine.