Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the staff of the Department of Biochemistry, Serology and Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana for their support during the participant’s recruitment and biological sample processing. We also thank the staffs and research assistants of the Department of Molecular Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for their support during the biological sample analysis.