Abstract

Objective: To determine the seroprevalence of B19V IgM as a measure of acute infection and associated risk factors among < 5 years children at Oyo state, Nigeria. Methods: One hundred and sixteen (116) and thirty eight (38) blood samples were individually collected from severe anaemia and age-matched non-anaemic children between 1-60 months old at Oyo state, Nigeria. EDTA anticoagulated blood was tested for their packed cell volume, while sera were tested for human parvovirus IgM antibodies using microhaematocrit centrifuge and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, respectively. Interviewer-based questionnaires were used to collect participants’ sociodemographic variables. Results: Anti-B19V IgM was detected in 17 (14.7%) severe anaemia subjects, whereas, only 2 (5.3%) non-anaemia subjects had B19V IgM. The prevalence of parvovirus B19 IgM antibodywas higher in anaemic subjects than non-anaemic control group. There is significant association between the seroprevalence of anti-B19V IgM and family size (P=0.001), number of siblings (P=0.032) and education status (P=0.01) of anaemic children but seroprevalence of anti-B19V IgM is not significantly associated with gender, family type and age (P>0.05). Conclusions: The seroprevalence of 14.7% among anaemic children confirm that these infections are endemic in Nigeria. This level of infectivity suggests that there is a high risk of transmission to healthy children as well as children with underlying haemolytic or acquired anaemia in Nigeria.

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