ABSTRACT TORCH infections are acquired during pregnancy and can cause abnormal fetal development. These infections include toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex (HSV) and others. As part of clinical care in Peru, there is no routine testing for the TORCH infections listed above. As a part of the ZIP study, 350 pregnant women have been enrolled in their first or early second trimester from peri-urban communities in Iquitos, Peru. Blood samples have been collected at enrollment to test for syphilis, HIV and TORCH. We determined the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis, CMV, rubella, and HSV in these women using a commercial ELISA for IgM. The mean age of the women enrolled was 26.2 ± 6.6 years, the gestational age at sample collection was 13.2 ± 3.4 weeks, and 31% were primigravida. Three (0.9%) sample was positive for syphilis and 4 (1.1%) for HIV. Twenty one (6%) sam...

Loreto, covering 28% of Peru's territory with around one million inhabitants, is the department most affected by malaria. In 2017, it reported 53163 malaria cases (about 90% of total cases in the country), of which 75% and 25% were caused by P. vivax and P. falciparum, respectively. Recent reports in South-American co-endemic countries for both species indicated that severe malaria (SM) caused by P. vivax is not rare.