Infectious diseases in migrant pregnant women from an area of the Colombian Caribbean

Introduction: Human migration is an activity that affects society in economic and political aspects and as a social determinant because of its differential impact on individual's health. Objective: To describe the situation of health and infectious diseases of vertical transmission risk in migrant pregnant women from an area of the Colombian Caribbean from 2019 to 2021. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on pregnant irregular migrants in the Riohacha and Santa Marta municipalities in Colombia. Hemogram, uranalysis, toxoplasma, FTA-ABS, VDRL, rubella, hepatitis B, HIV (TORCHs), vaginal swab, basal glycemia, and transaminases, among other paraclinical tests, were done on pregnant women. Data was arranged, tabulated, and analyzed in SPSS v.23.0. A descriptive statistical analysis with measures of central tendency and dispersion for quantitative variables, and proportions analysis was done for qualitative variables. Results: A total of 555 clinical records were analyzed. Of the infectious agents with a risk of vertical transmission, syphilis was the most frequent with 3.6%. Regarding toxoplasmosis, 2.5% were IgM-positive. 4.2% of the pregnant women had IgG antibodies against Rubella and 2 women showed antibodies against HIV. Conclusions: Our results reflect the need for the implementation of educational, prevention, and detection health programs with the aim to decrease the number of prenatal infections in the pregnant migrant population for preventing fatal complications both in mothers and newborns.

Automated summary

This study describes the health and infectious diseases with vertical transmission risk in migrant pregnant women from an area of the Colombian Caribbean from 2019 to 2021. The results show that syphilis is the most common infectious agent with a risk of vertical transmission, and there are also proportions of rubella and HIV antibodies in the pregnant women. These findings highlight the need for educational, prevention, and detection health programs to reduce prenatal infections in the pregnant migrant population and prevent fatal complications.