Estimating Disease Burden Of Maternal Syphilis And Associated Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes In China

Background Syphilis can be transmitted from mother to infant during pregnancy or delivery, causing a variety of adverse pregnancy outcomes including early fetal loss, stillbirth, neonatal death, prematurity, low birth weight and clinical evidence of congenital syphilis. In 2012, WHO estimated that 0.93 million maternal syphilis infections caused 0.35 million adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, there has been no report on the burden of maternal syphilis infections and associated adverse outcomes in China. This study aimed to estimate maternal syphilis infections and its associated adverse pregnancy outcomes in China. Methods A WHO estimation model was used to estimate the number of maternal syphilis and adverse pregnant outcomes due to mother-to-child transmission. Data on the number of pregnant women, syphilis testing rate, syphilis seroprevalence rate and treatment rate were collected at county level in China in 2015. Results Data were collected from 2,675 counties of 337 cities in 30 provinces (data were not reported in Tibet Autonomous Region) of mainland China in 2015 35,247 pregnant women were estimated to be infected with syphilis and the prevalence rate was 0.23%. It was estimated that a total of 5232 adverse pregnancy outcomes were caused by maternal syphilis infections, including 2,406 early fetal losses and stillbirths, 928 neonatal deaths, 788 preterm or low weight births, and 1,110 infected infants. The overall incidence rate of syphilis associated adverse pregnant outcomes was 34.1 per 100,000 pregnant women in China, which ranged from 5.8 to 218.0 per 100,000 pregnant women among different provinces. Conclusion Maternal syphilis and associated adverse outcomes remain an important public health issue in China, and disease burden was relatively high in some areas. Improved syphilis screening, timely diagnosis and treatment are important for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of syphilis. Disclosure No significant relationships.