The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that all pregnant women be screened for syphilis three times during pregnancy. The recommendation comes after a recent surge in cases of newborns infected with syphilis. In its practice recommendations, ACOG calls for three screening tests: once at the first prenatal care visit, twice during the third trimester, and again at birth.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which looked at sexually transmitted infections, found that while cases of other sexually transmitted diseases, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, are decreasing or increasing slightly, syphilis will increase from 2018 to 2022. It jumped 80% in a year.
“With cases of congenital syphilis increasing nearly eight-fold over the past decade, we recognize that from a public health perspective, obstetricians and gynecologists and other obstetric health care clinicians have an important role to play. '' said Dr. Christopher Zahn, FACOG. , Interim CEO and Director of Clinical Practice and Health Equity and Quality. “While we continue to support the CDC's STD treatment guidelines, ACOG's new guidelines do not follow an individualized risk-based approach to late-trimester testing and instead provide more opportunities for testing and treatment. We will help you secure it.”
Dr. Stacey Rizza, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic, says syphilis is a bacterial infection that is primarily transmitted through sexual contact. But, she says, it can also be transmitted from a pregnant mother to her baby.
“This means that if a mother has syphilis, whether she knows it or not, and is undiagnosed and untreated during pregnancy, she can transmit syphilis to her fetus, and her baby can pass it on.” “You can be born with it,” says Dr. Riza. This is also known as congenital syphilis, and according to a CDC report, the number of newborn syphilis infections increased by 183% between 2018 and 2022.
Dr. Riza said babies can be born without symptoms, “but they can develop symptoms of syphilis within weeks, months or even years after birth. Unfortunately , which often causes abnormalities in the baby, including abnormalities in the liver and spleen from birth, as well as rashes and abnormalities in the facial structure, brain, and especially the eyes.
If you are pregnant or have just given birth and suspect you have an infection, Dr. Riza recommends getting tested as soon as possible. “So we can treat it during pregnancy and prevent the transmission of syphilis to the baby. And if someone is born with syphilis, we can diagnose it quickly, whether or not there are any signs of it.” “We want to be able to treat it and prevent further symptoms,” she says.
Diagnosis is made with a blood test. If positive, treatment with the antibiotic penicillin has proven effective.
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