Thousands of babies at risk without strategy for congenital syphilis

A new report has called for a national strategy and guidelines to stop pregnant women passing syphilis on to their babies, a situation linked to thousands of miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births. At present no national strategy exists to eliminate congenital syphilis and poor funding has hampered reduction efforts to easily detect and treat the […]

A new report has called for a national strategy and guidelines to stop pregnant women passing syphilis on to their babies, a situation linked to thousands of miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births.

At present no national strategy exists to eliminate congenital syphilis and poor funding has hampered reduction efforts to easily detect and treat the disease.

“Congenital syphilis is an absolutely avoidable affliction on our mothers and newborns,” said president of Association for Family and Reproductive Health (ARFH), which supported the report to mark World Prematurity Day.

“It is time for Nigerian decision-makers to step up and begin efforts in earnest to reduce this

burden.”Nigeria is considered to have the highest prevalence of syphilis in pregnant women across Africa, with an estimated75,000 women having the sexually transmitted infection in 2012 alone.

The result is “thousands of poor health outcomes for their newborns,” said the report, but the syphilis can be easily detected and treated with antibiotics.

Authored by the international nonprofit PATH, with support ARFH, the report called for Nigeria to strength data surveillance to help decision and strategy on congenital syphilis.

Dr Abiodun Hassan, monitoring and evaluation coordinator of ARFH and principal investigator for the report’s research in Nigeria, said, “Government, policy makers and clinicians should give priority to the screening and treatment of maternal syphilis.”

Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, head of prevention at National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCP), noted, “The policies are available and there are various platforms to raise priority for congenital syphilis. There is need for the country to lead and have ownership of any initiative related to congenital syphilis.”

What’s syphilis?

 It is a highly contagious disease spread primary through sex, including oral and anal sex. It is caused by the bacteria TreponemapallidumIt is sometimes passed through prolonged kissing or close bodily contact. It is spread from sore, but a majority of the sores go unnoticed.

An infected person is often unaware of the disease and unknowingly passes it on to his or her sexual partner.

A pregnant woman with syphilis can pass it to her baby. This is called congenital syphilis and can cause abnormalities or even death to the child. Syphilis cannot be spread by toilet seats, door knobs, swimming pools, hot tubs, bath tubs, shared clothing, or eating utensils.

Syphilis was once a major public health threat, commonly causing serious long-term health problems such as arthritis, brain damage, and blindness.

It defied effective treatment until the late1940s, when the antibiotic penicillin was first developed.