Prevalence of serological markers IgG and IgM antibodies against cytomegalovirus among aborted women in Lahj Governorate, Yemen

Background: CMV infection is one of the commonest viral infections that is related to abortion among pregnant women. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anti-CMV IgG and anti-CMV IgM antibodies among aborted women in Lahj Governorate, Yemen, and to determine possible associated factors that contribute to CMV infection among those women. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 110 aborted women; five ml of blood was collected from women, sera were separated, and anti-CMV IgG and IgM were determined using a cobas® e 411 analyzer that is based on ECLIA. The data was entered and then analyzed using SPSS. Results: The overall prevalence of IgG and IgM antibodies to CMV infections was 80.9% and 7.3%, respectively. High-income aborted women had a statistically significant association with positive anti-CMV IgG antibodies (p=0.019). The present data detected that anti-CMV IgG and IgM antibodies were high at 81.8% and 12.1% among women who had recurrent abortion, respectively. The significant associations were only noticed between anti-CMV IgG antibodies and period of marriage, number of pregnancies (2-3 times), and exposure to blood transfusion (p=0.01, 0.030, and 0.047), respectively. The highest IgG positivity rate was 83.3%, observed among women who had 2–3 live children, while the highest anti-CMV IgM positivity rate was 10%, reported among women who had no live child, but these results were not statistically significant. Conclusions: The seroprevalence of CMV IgG was higher compared to IgM in Lahj, Yemen. The CMV antibodies were high among women with recurrent abortions. Only positive IgG against CMV was significantly associated with high socioeconomic status, a period of marriage of 7-9 years, pregnancies 2-3 times among aborted women, and previous exposure to blood transfusion. The highest IgG positivity rate was observed among women who had 2–3 live children, while the anti-CMV IgM was high among those who had no live child without any significant association.