Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (HIV, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus type 2, and syphilis) in pregnant women in Ethiopia: Trends over 10 years (2005–2014)

Abstract

This study was performed to determine the trends in seroprevalence of four major sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), and syphilis) over a 10-year period (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) in pregnant women in Ethiopia. Methods: Pregnant women (15-49 years old) who were enrolled in the antenatal care-based national HIV surveillance were included. Serological tests for HIV, HBV, HSV-2, and syphilis were done on serum/ plasma samples. Results: A total of 4887 pregnant women were included. Results showed a decline in prevalence of these STIs by 40-60% over the 10 years (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014): HIV (10.5% to 5.5%), syphilis (2.5% to 1.1%), HBV (12.6% to 6.7%), and HSV-2 (47.5% to 28.5%). In 2014, 109/4887 (2.2%) women had triple infections. In 2005In , and 2009, the prevalence of HSV-2 in the older age group (35-45 years) (47.1%, 47.4%, and 50.0%, respectively) was higher than that in the younger age group (15-24 years) (40.9%, 19.5%, and 20.2%, respectively). Age category (Chi-square = 22.4, p < 0.001), study sites/residence (Chi-square = 135.2, p = 0.001), and time/years (Chi-square = 58.9, p = 0.001) were associated with a positive HSV-2 test result. Conclusions: A decline in HIV, HBV, HSV-2, and syphilis of >40% was seen over the years in Ethiopia. However, an intermediate endemicity level of HBV and higher prevalence of HIV and HSV-2 by 2014, suggest the need to strengthen prevention strategy for STIs.

HIV, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and syphilis among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Luanda, Angola: Seroprevalence and risk factors

“…However, a high HIV/HBV co‐infection in pregnant women suggests a potential source for the spread of viral infections in Luanda. Our findings are consistent with those reported in HIV‐positive pregnant women from Cameroon (7.7%), 25 higher than to reported in Nigeria (0.5%), 26 Botswana (3.1%), 27 Rwanda (4.1%), 19 and Sudan (5.6%), 28 but is lower than that reported in Ethiopia (12.1%), 12 and Ghana (14.9%) 29 . The proportion of HIV/HCV co‐infection observed in our cohort was compared to reported in southern (3.3%) and north (42.3%) of sub‐Saharan Africa, 30 and European countries (12.3%) 31 .…”

“…Since the first case of HIV infection was reported in 1985 in Angola, the infection has spread rapidly to the general population from urbanized to rural areas 11 . Although there are studies with a comparatively high seroprevalence in pregnant women, as in Ethiopia (5.5%), 12 Tanzania (5.6%), 13 and Cameroon (6%), 14 the HIV prevalence in this study was slightly lower. In contrast, it is higher than reports in pregnant women from India (0.88%), 15 and Brazil (0.09%) 16 .…”

The Epidemiology of Syphilis in the Volta Region of Ghana: A Five-Year Multisite Parallel Population-Based Analysis vis-à-vis the Sentinel Survey

“…[22]. However, similar reports have been observed in other jurisdictions including 1.1% in Ethiopia [23], 0.5% in South Africa [24], 1.1 % in Nigeria [25] and 2.9% in Hungary [26]. Although we recorded a relatively low syphilis infection rate in this study in comparison to other settings, our findings suggest that syphilis infection is persistent in the population, constituting an important public health issue in the current study jurisdiction.…”

Standardized treatment and determinants on 9,059 syphilis-infected pregnant women during 2015–2018 in Hunan, China

“…T. pallidum can be transmitted via the placenta to the fetus. The incidence rates of gestational syphilis in China are 0.2–0.5% 1 – 3 , which are lower than the levels in Africa (1.1%) and South America (1.6%) 4 , 5 . The untreated gestational syphilis can cause severe adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, premature delivery, low birth weight, neonatal death and congenital syphilis, and the incidence rates of overall adverse pregnancy outcomes are up to 25–77% 6 – 9 .…”