Cytomegalovirus (CMV) seroprevalence in pregnant women, bone marrow donors and adolescents in Germany, 1996–2010

In Germany, studies on the IgG seroprevalence in pregnancy and in women of childbearing age are rare. Therefore, we retrospectively evaluated the CMV IgG seropositive rate in 40,324 pregnant women as well as in 31,093 female and male bone marrow donors over 15 consecutive years (1996–2010). Furthermore, the result of a study conducted in 1999 investigating 1,305 healthy adolescents with known ethnicity was included. The overall CMV IgG seroprevalence in pregnant women (15–50 years) was 42.3%. Age-dependent analysis revealed a significantly higher seropositive rate (55.6%) in young women (15–25 years) than in those aged 26–40 years (37–42%) and in women older than 40 years (48.3%). Over the study period of 15 years, the rate of seroprevalence in pregnant women declined significantly (χ² test < 0.01) from 44.3% in the first interval period (1996–2000), to 42.8% (2001–2005) and to 40.9% (2006–2010). The most influencing factor on CMV seropositivity appeared to be the socioeconomic status (SES), which we characterized by type of health insurance: Seroprevalence in women with low, middle and upper SES was 91.8, 46.9 and 33.7%, respectively. Female bone marrow donors of childbearing age (15–45 years) showed a significantly higher seropositive rate of 36.5% than age-matched male donors (28.6%). In adolescents aged 13–16 years, no gender-specific differences were recognized. Concerning ethnicity, youngsters with German descent had a significantly lower seroprevalence (29.9%) than those with non-German descent (67.4%).