Secular trend on congenital infections: insights from Campania region register for perinatal infection, southern Italy

Abstract

There is increasing pressure for prevention of vertically transmitted congenital infection and prenatal screening is recommended for main locally prevalent infections. Furthermore, systematic monitoring of their impact and effectiveness of practices is quite rare at National level. As a consequence of favorable conditions on Campania region of Southern Italy a monitoring system based on post- delivery surveillance on congenital infection has been longtime piloted and seems ready to be exported at national level. Temporal trend analysis is showing change on focus and impact of prevalent congenital infection such as toxoplasmosis, rubella, syphilis and HIV. Moreover, the effect of recent massive immigration from Eastern EU and Africa requires further focus.

Keywords::

• congenital toxoplasmosis
• congenital rubella
• congenital syphilis
• perinatal HIV prevalence
• temporal trend on Italy

Declaration of interest: The present study has been financially supported by Campania Region Health Bureau as Perinatal Infection Register (DGR 10788 del 31.12.1996).