Incidence of rhesus isoimmunization in rhesus-negative mothers in Ramadi, Iraq, in the mid-1990s

This work was carried out in Ramadi, Iraq over the period 1993 to 1997. Of 487 rhesus [Rh]-negative mothers tested and followed up, 172 were primigravida, 1.7% of whom were Rh-isoimmunized. The frequency of isoimmunization increased with increasing number of pregnancies [4.9% for second pregnancies to 45.4% for fifth pregnancies]. Comparison of our results with other earlier studies shows that the incidence of Rh-isoimmunization in our study was considerably greater than the others