Regional strategy for the elimination of congenital syphilis
Loading...
Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia
Abstract
Description
Worldwide, syphilis accounts for an estimated 12 million cases, 2 million of them among pregnant women. Syphilis in pregnant women can result in adverse outcomes of pregnancy in up to 80% of cases, such as stillbirth and spontaneous abortion, perinatal death, and serious neonatal infections and low-birth-weight babies. The annual global number of cases of congenital syphilis is estimated to be between 713 600 and 1 575 000. More newborn infants are affected by congenital syphilis than any other infection including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tetanus. The morbidity and mortality due to congenital syphilis is much higher than that due to mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, yet syphilis has not received the same attention as HIV. This is mainly due to inadequate political commitment and insufficient national and international awareness of the burden of congenital syphilis. This Regional strategy for the elimination of congenital syphilis (ECS) is aimed at various stakeholders concerned with ECS including national policy-makers, programme officials, nongovernmental organizations, international nongovernmental organizations, communitybased organizations, multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, and United Nations agencies.