Seroepide Miological Study of Herpes Simplex Virus in Pregnant Women Referring to Health and Care Center in Kermanshah (2003-2004)

Introduction: Herpes Simplex is a contagious infectious disease that usually can be transferred by such close contacts as kissing, sexual intercourse, during pregnancy from mother to fetus or/and during the birth in contact with the vaginal secretion. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) can produce a variety of infectious dangers by means of involving lips, involving genital system, skin, eyes and sometimes central nervous system and other visceral organs. In the first months of living fetus, congenital infection by Herpes virus can disturb the formation of organs and the offspring will be born with Microsephalia- Microphetalemia calcification in skull, chorioretinitis, kataract, liver calcification and heart defects. On the one hand a primary infection in pregnant women can have several dangers for the fetus, and on the other hand about HSVII when infection reappears, it’s possible to keep the fetus from the dangers of infection by choosing appropriate methods of childbirth. Having knowledge about the prevalence of this infection in pregnant women can make the health and care organizations to pay more attention to this infection and also it can help with choosing suitable treatment and prevention methods, and finally affected factors in this prevalence can be diagnosed.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study 385 pregnant women that referred to some clinics of medical university in Kermanshah were evaluated by ELISA method regarding the presence of IgG antibodies against HSVII and additionally the prevalence of infection in this group was determined. Then the relation between infection of some variables like age, history of abortion, surgery, transfusion, etc. was determined as well. 

Results: Prevalence of HSVII infection in the study group was 3.3%, and in the age group of 15-25 2.7% and 3.3% in the age group of 26-35 and 8.3% in the age group of older than 36 years old. Although there were a lot of dissimilarities among the group of study, there weren't any significant correlations between evaluated variables and HSVII pollution.

Conclusion: Prevalence in of HSVII infection in compare with the other countries especially western countries is lower. In Iran this difference may be due to life style in Iran society, Iranian Culture and the religion in compare with western countries; it seams that free sexual behavior has important role in high prevalence of HSVII infection in western countries.