Epidemiologic study of syphilis in pregnant women in a hospital from Buenos Aires in the period 2010-2015

Abstract

Sexual transmission infections, including syphilis, are among the main causes of illness in the world, with economic, social and sanitary consequences of great repercussion in many countries. Syphilis can affect pregnant women and be transmitted to the fetus. The aims of this study were to determine the seroprevalence in pregnant women with positive non-treponemal test, to determine the incidence of gestational syphilis, to quantify the pregnant women with three or more controls of this test, and to compare the number of controls with that of assisted childbirths. An ecological and retrospective population descriptive study from January 2010 until December, 2015 was performed. The study included all the patients assisted in the maternity service and controlled by non-treponemal tests in the Immunoserology Sector of the Laboratory of the Hospital General Interzonal de Agudos “Evita”, Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the 6 years studied, 16,149 pregnant patients were controlled, with a seroprevalence of 3.91 %, an incidence of gestational syphilis of 2.36 % (2012 - 2015) and a percentage of pregnant women with three or more controls of 3.61 %. A total of 16,246 childbirths were recorded, being evident a higher number of childbirths than pregnancy controls. We observed high values of predominance of positive non-treponemal tests and of incidence of gestational syphilis. There was also a low percentage of pregnant women who did not attend the quarterly control of their serological status of antibodies for syphilis and a large number of childbirths in the hospital that were not controlled in our laboratory.