TORCH agents in women of fertile age: towards prevention of congenital infections, Italy, 2019 to 2020

BACKGROUNDMicrobiological surveillance during pregnancy is important for better neonatal outcomes.AIMWe aimed to assess IgG and IgM antibodies against <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>, parvovirus B19, <i>Treponema pallidum</i>, rubella virus and cytomegalovirus in women of fertile age (16-45 years) in Italy and investigate factors associated with the presence of antibodies.METHODSWe collected data from clinical microbiology laboratories on test results for IgG and IgM antibodies against <i>T. gondii</i>, parvovirus B19, <i>T. pallidum</i>, rubella virus and cytomegalovirus between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020. Serological tests, like IgG avidity for <i>T. gondii</i> and cytomegalovirus, non-treponemal tests for <i>T. pallidum</i> and molecular tests for parvovirus B19 and rubella virus were considered as confirmatory tests for acute infections. We investigated associations between presence of antibodies with age, nationality and geographic area of residence.RESULTSThirty-two laboratories submitted test results on 342,095 women. The overall weighted proportion of IgG antibodies was 13,700 of 111,580 (13%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 12-14) for women tested for <i>T. gondii</i>, 3,298 of 5,138 (65%; 95% CI: 60-69) for parvovirus B19, 63,828 of 69,865 (87%; 95% CI: 85-88) for rubella virus and 45,558 of 71,013 (66%; 95% CI: 64-68) for cytomegalovirus. For <i>T. pallidum</i>, 889 of 81,401 (1%; 95% CI: 1-1) of treponemal tests were positive. Overall, we estimated 530 acute infections with <i>T. gondii</i>, 33 with parvovirus and 449 with cytomegalovirus.CONCLUSIONThese findings underline the need for screening for congenital infections in fertile women.