TORCH infections in women of childbearing potential and pregnant women: risk factors, diagnosis, and seroprevalence

Abstract

Women present a series of characteristics that define not only their health and well-being, but also become positive or negative predictors of the health of future generations, hence the purpose of the topic to be investigated, which aims to demonstrate infections by TORCH in pregnant women of childbearing age: risk factors, diagnosis, and seroprevalence. In this context,  the applied methodology was descriptive, documentary and it was based on the search for articles: in the Pubmed, Scielo, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Redalyc databases, in which the MeSH terms, "congenital infections", "TORCH", " toxoplasmosis”, “infections”, “pregnancy”, “Rubella”, “herpes”, “cytomegalovirus”, “childbearing age”, “women”. The results obtained are focused on the determination of the various risk factors, among which socioeconomic level, geographical location, poor eating habits and age stand out, highlighting the most prevalent laboratory techniques in the diagnosis of TORCH infections, which are the enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and enzyme immunoassays of chemiluminescent microparticles Besides,  there were positive results for active infections in regions such as Europe, Asia and Latin America, among which it stands out that these infections have been contracted due to the high seroprevalence of igg antibodies in study populations. In conclusion, TORCH infections are prevalent worldwide, affecting women of childbearing age and pregnant women, mainly highlighting socioeconomic factors, so this population group should be encouraged to monitor before and during pregnancy, thus avoiding congenital diseases.