Durban — According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), congenital syphilis poses a severe threat to infants as it is a debilitating and potentially life-threatening infection.
The NICD said that when a pregnant mother carries syphilis, the spirochete Treponema pallidum can be transmitted to the unborn infant through the placenta, a process known as vertical transmission. Congenital syphilis is a severe, disabling, and often life-threatening infection seen in infants. A pregnant mother who has syphilis can spread the disease through the placenta to the unborn infant.
“Up to 80% of cases involve mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) in untreated mothers. Early congenital syphilis is characterised by its impact on infants or children whose mothers had untreated or inadequately treated syphilis during delivery, irrespective of visible signs in the infant. On the other hand, late congenital syphilis emerges from the third year of life onward, resulting from vertically acquired infections.”
However, the infection is preventable through testing, diagnosis and adequate benzathine penicillin treatment for syphilis-infected mothers.
“South Africa’s national guidelines recommend universal syphilis and HIV testing during pregnancy with immediate antiretroviral therapy or benzathine penicillin treatment for positive women,” read the statement.
Moreover, the NICD said the occurrence of the infection depicts a failure to prevent MTCT of syphilis due to undetected, untreated or inadequately treated maternal syphilis. Infants born to syphilis-infected mothers with little or no treatment also require treatment for congenital infection.
In the country, maternal syphilis is said to be increasing among pregnant women, and failure to effectively diagnose and treat it increases MTCT of HIV and syphilis.
“Establishing surveillance, monitoring and evaluation systems is one of the pillars towards the elimination of MTCT in syphilis. South Africa has established surveillance and programmes to measure progress towards preventing MTCT of HIV and CS,” read the statement.
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