Syphilis Congenita

Overview

After many years we encountered again in the Czech Republic cases of congenital syphilis. Thenumbers are not high (in 1998 - 18 cases) but they suggest certain shortcomings. Because theknowledge of our doctors in this sphere was rather theoretical, in practice some shortcomingsoccurred. The main causes of the increase are less stringent organizational provisions, greatermovement of people and lack of adherence to formerly introduced rules. The latter include inparticular systematic sampling of umbilical blood, examination of seroreactions during pregnancy,systematic dispensarization of former patients and their check-ups, treatment of mothers witha case-history of syphilis. It is also important to report syphilitic abortions with subsequent screening and epidemiological follow-up. The main mistake is usually doubtful interpretation of serological findings, whether the disease proper is involved or transmission of antibodies. The objectiveof the article is to present an up-to-date survey of the problem of congenital syphilis as obviouslya certain number of cases will be encountered particularly in socially problematic subjects.

Key words:
congenital syphilis - incidence - education - interpretation of seroreactions - algo-rithms of procedure - organizational provisions in the Czech Republic