Missed Opportunities for Prevention of Congenital Syphilis - United States, 2018.

Missed Opportunities for Prevention of Congenital Syphilis - United States, 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020 Jun 05;69(22):661-665 Authors: Kimball A, Torrone E, Miele K, Bachmann L, Thorpe P, Weinstock H, Bowen V Abstract Congenital syphilis is an infection with Treponema pallidum in an infant or fetus, acquired during pregnancy from a mother with untreated or inadequately treated syphilis. Congenital syphilis can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death, and infected infants can experience lifelong physical and neurologic problems. Although timely identification and treatment of maternal syphilis during pregnancy can prevent congenital syphilis (1,2), the number of reported congenital syphilis cases in the United States increased 261% during 2013-2018, from 362 to 1,306. Among reported congenital syphilis cases during 2018, a total of 94 resulted in stillbirths or early infant deaths (3). Using 2018 national congenital syphilis surveillance data and a previously developed framework (4), CDC identified missed opportunities for congenital syphilis prevention. Nationally, the most commonly missed prevention opportunities were a lack of adequate maternal treatment despite the timely diagnosis of syphilis (30.7%) and a lack of timely prenatal care (28.2%), with variation by geographic region. Congenital syphilis prevention involves syphilis prevention for women and their partners and timely identification and treatment ...
Source: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkl... - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Source Type: research