ABSTRACT
Background: TORCH infection complex during pregnancy has bad obstetric outcomes starting from low birth weight to congenital anomalies, sensory neural deafness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and sometimes to fatal outcomes like abortion and still birth. As these diseases remain mostly asymptomatic these are rarely tested during pregnancy. Serology is the mainstay of diagnosing these infections.. Methods: A cross sectional study was undertaken to estimate the burden of these infections in a rural belt of western Odisha where majority of the population depend upon agricultural work. A total number of 402 antenatal cases were screened by ELISA test for presence of IgG&IgM antibodies against toxoplasma, rubella virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) 1 & 2; RPR test was done to know seroprevalence of Syphilis. Results: It was found that Rubella is the most predominant infection being positive in 69.1% of the cases (IgG 68.4%, IgM 0.5%, and both IgG&IgM 0.25%), followed by CMV infection-66.7% (IgG 57.2%, IgM 1.7%, both 7.7%), Toxoplasma infection-39.8% (IgG 38.3%, IgM 0.7%, both 0.7%), HSV 1-23.6% (IgG 21.1%, IgM 2%, both 0.25%) and HSV 2 – 13.2% (IgG 11.7%, IgM 1.6%, both 0.25%). The seoprevalence of syphilis by RPR was least common with 0.5%. Conclusions: This study showed that most of the infections have occurred by 20 years of age and before or during the 1st pregnancy. It is less common among the antenatal cases who have better education and have spouses servicing in private or government sectors signifying the more health and sanitation awareness among this group.