Journal of Infectious Diseases & Preventive Medicine
Open Access

Abstract

Prevalence of Gestational and Congenital Syphilis in Brazil in the Last 15 Years

Deborah Rose Galvao Dantas, Hanna Sthefanie Tavares Barros, Lauriston Fláviodos Santos Maia Filho, Luiza Di Credico Paranhos, Maria Eduarda Costa Calú, Natalia Tetemann Vilarim, Thamiris Miranda Granja and Renné Cunha da Silva

Introduction: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease with a great impact in public health which can also occur in maternal and congenital forms. The vertical transmission of syphilis, when not early prevented, can bring repercussions to the fetus, with transmission rates reflecting the quality of prenatal care.
Objective: Demonstrate maternal and congenital syphilis prevalence and/or incidence in Brazil in the last 15 years.
Methods: A Systematic Review Study, for which were searched cross-sectional and cohort complete scientific articles about maternal and congenital syphilis prevalence in Brazil in the last 15 years, using the descriptors: “prevalence”, “syphilis in pregnant women”, “congenital syphilis”, “Brazil” in Portuguese and its English correspondents in virtual databases: LILACS, MEDLINE, Pubmed and Scielo in Portuguese, English and Spanish languages.
Results: The prevalence of maternal syphilis ranged between 1.02% and 1.9% in the women evaluated. Most of studies showed higher prevalence among the ones who performed adequate prenatal care (65.2%), related to the vertical transmission progress rate (58.06%). National vertical transmission rate was high, an average of 34.3%. Besides, asymptomatic newborn with congenital syphilis had a high incidence (88.9%).
Conclusion: Although the discrete decrease in the last few years, maternal and congenital Syphilis are still prevalent in Brazil and there are estimated values above the goals that Ministry of Health has established. Due to the presence of a social component, it turns to be necessary to implement health and education public policies, to achieve the established goals for this pathology. The referral of infected concept to be treated in adequate services was infrequent, perhaps due to the absence of symptoms in neonatal period or the lack of registration of the symptoms. These data point to failures in health care of pregnant women and in prenatal care.