Maternal and Congenital Syphilis at a Hospital in EL Alto / La PAZ, Bolivia, 2012

Background:  Beginning in 2008, the compliance of regulations established by the Health Ministry for pregnant women has been reinforced at the "Hospital Municipal Los Andes" (HMLA) in El Alto, including screening for syphilis and HIV, prevention of vertical transmission and syphilis treatment. Objectives:   To find out the proportion of syphilis and HIV in pregnant women, during the first semester of 2012 in the HLMA To follow up on the screening, the procedures to handle congenital and maternal syphilis, and prevention of vertical transmission of HIV 

Methods:  Reviews of laboratory notebooks were conducted, which allowed us to obtain the number of pregnant women who had lab tests for syphilis and HIV taken, and the number of newborns who had syphilis tests taken.  Medical files of pregnant women who are syphilis-positive and their newborns were identified and reviewed.

Results:  A total of 3,308 pregnant women were admitted to the HMLA, with a mean of 28 years of age.  52 women gave a reactive result for VDRL with titers between 1:2 and 1:256, with 51 rapid-tests that resulted in syphilis-positive and a proportion of 1.54%.  Out of the 3,308 pregnant women who had the HIV rapid-test taken, 10 gave a reactive result and two were WB confirmed, with a proportion of 0.06%. The 51 pregnant women, during the hospitalization, received the first dose of benzathine penicillin, and so did their partners. Meeting was arranged with those partners prior to discharging the women patients from the hospital.  The out-patient treatment was initiated to 10 RN with congenital syphilis, 7 (70%) finished the treatment with 10 doses; the rest with 7, 8 and 9 doses.

Conclusions: 

The continuous follow-up performed to health personnel was key to ensure full compliance of norms and protocols of MSD.  Maternal and congenital syphilis treatment requires to be followed-up on.