Antibody kinetics in infants exposed to Chikungunya virus infection during pregnancy reveals absence of congenital infection.

ABSTRACT

To search for serological evidence of congenital infection in apparently healthy neonates born to women infected with the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) during pregnancy, monitoring for CHIKV-specific antibodies was performed within the CHIMERE cohort study (Reunion island, 2006-2008). CHIKV-specific antibody kinetics showed no evidence of asymptomatic congenital infection as neonates were tested negative for CHIKV-specific IgM antibodies at birth and 368 infants with CHIKV-specific IgG antibodies seroreversed completely (mean seroreversion time 7.7 months). Seroreversion time of transplacental CHIKV IgG antibodies was inversely correlated with the stage of pregnancy at which exposure took place and end-term small for gestational infants seroreversed earlier.