Screening for syphilis during pregnancy in Nigeria: A practice that must continue.
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TLDR
The seroprevalence rate of syphilis among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics of a teaching and a state specialist hospital in Nigeria is determined to ascertain whether maternal screening should be incorporated into routine antenatal care of the authors' hospitals.Abstract:
Objective: The objective was to determine the seroprevalence rate of syphilis among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics of a Teaching and a State Specialist hospital in Nigeria, in order to ascertain whether maternal screening should be incorporated into routine antenatal care of our hospitals
Methods: Screening test for syphilis for 505 newly booked pregnant women was first carried out by the qualitative Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) using the RPR-SlideTM test kit and all reactive sera were then subjected to the quantitative RPR test to estimate the titer of each sample. The Treponema pallidum haemagglutination antibody (TPHA) test was used as confirmatory test of all positive RPR sera. Results: Fifty women (9.9%) were positive for RPR; 15 (2.97%) were positive for TPHA, giving a sero-prevalence rate of 2.97%. Thirty two women (6.34%) were RPR positive at 1:2, 7 (1.39%) at 1:4 and 11 (2.2%) at 1:8. Two of the women positive for RPR at 1:2 were TPHA positive, 2 of the 7 positive at 1:4 were TPHA positive, while all 11 positive women at 1:8 were TPHA positive. In all, 70% of all RPR positive women screened were biological false positives. Eleven of the 15 women had high titre active syphilis
(RPR ≥ 1:8, TPHA+) while 4 had low titre active syphilis (RPR < 1:8, TPHA+). Conclusions: The 2.97% sero-prevalence rate obtained after accounting for biological false positives is considered high. Screening for syphilis in pregnancy should be incorporated into routine antenatal practice in our hospitals.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Antenatal Syphilis Screening Using Point-of-Care Testing in Sub-Saharan African Countries: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
TL;DR: The cost-effectiveness and budget impact of antenatal syphilis screening for 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are evaluated and the impact of universal screening on averted stillbirths, neonatal deaths, congenital syphilis, and DALYs is estimated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Improving global estimates of syphilis in pregnancy by diagnostic test type: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
TL;DR: “Probable active syphilis,” is defined as seroreactivity in both non‐treponemal and treponemals tests, and a correction factor of 65%, namely the proportion of pregnant women reactive in one syphilis test type that were likely reactive in the second, was applied for global estimates of syphilis during pregnancy.
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Prasad Palani Velu,Courtney Gravett,Tom Roberts,Thor A. Wagner,Jian Shayne F Zhang,Craig E. Rubens,Michael G. Gravett,Harry Campbell,Igor Rudan +8 more
TL;DR: The suspected high prevalence of maternal bacterial and viral infections is confirmed and particular diseases and regions requiring urgent attention in public health policy planning, setting research priorities and donor funding towards reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries are identified.
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Barriers to antenatal syphilis screening in Burkina Faso
TL;DR: In this article, the authors conducted in-depth interviews and observations in the Kaya health district, Burkina Faso to identify and understand barriers affecting health system performance for syphilis screening among pregnant women in the country.
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Prevalence of Syphilis among Pregnant Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
TL;DR: The evidence suggests strengthening the screening program during pregnancy as part of the care package during antenatal care visits and programs focusing on primary prevention of syphilis in women should also be strengthened.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Syphilis in Pregnancy in Tanzania. II. The Effectiveness of Antenatal Syphilis Screening and Single-Dose Benzathine Penicillin Treatment for the Prevention of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes
Deborah Watson-Jones,Balthazar Gumodoka,Helen A. Weiss,John Changalucha,Jim Todd,Kokungoza Mugeye,Anne Buvé,Zephrine Kanga,Leonard Ndeki,Mary Rusizoka,David Ross,Janeth Marealle,Rebecca Balira,David Mabey,Richard J. Hayes +14 more
TL;DR: Single-dose treatment is effective in preventing adverse pregnancy outcomes attributable to maternal syphilis with single-dose benzathine penicillin in Tanzania, and there was no increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcome for women treated for high-titer active syphilis.
Journal ArticleDOI
Syphilis intervention in pregnancy: Zambian demonstration project.
Subhash K. Hira,Ganapati J. Bhat,D.M. Chikamata,Nkowane Bm,George Tembo,Peter L. Perine,A. Meheus +6 more
TL;DR: Although screening and treatment during intervention was suboptimal, the adverse outcomes attributable to syphilis were reduced to 28.3%; this is almost a two-third reduction when compared with 72.4% of adverse outcomes at control centres (p < less than 0.001).
Journal ArticleDOI
Economic evaluation of maternal screening to prevent congenital syphilis.
TL;DR: Benefit-cost analysis was applied to a model of first-trimester screening for syphilis where approximately ten new cases of early infections are indentified and treated per 50,000 pregnancies, and it was found that the economic benefits are nearly four times the cost of the program.
Journal ArticleDOI
Seroprevalence of syphilis amongst pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in a rural hospital in north west Ethiopia.
TL;DR: There is a need for improvement of antenatal care activities at different levels of health care and Appropriate strategies should be devised for prevention and control of sexually transmitted diseases in women of reproductive age groups and the general population.