Current status of syphilis in pregnant women in Japan

Abstract

We examined the current status of syphilis-infected pregnant Japanese women, according to the results of syphilis screening and confirmation tests of women who gave birth in Japan between October, 2015 and March, 2016. We requested 2458 obstetrical facilities to provide information of syphilis screening tests and 78.1% of them responded. Considering the response rate and the rate of implementation of confirmation tests, the number of syphilis-infected pregnant Japanese women was estimated to be 250 (1/4022) per year.

Keywords:

• Syphilis
• Treponema pallidum
• pregnant women
• mother-to-child transmission
• Japan

Acknowledgements

We thank JAOG members for their cooperation with our questionnaire. We thank the Japanese Foundation for Sexual Health Medicine for their excellent suggestions and financial support.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Japanese Foundation for Sexual Health Medicine.