London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

On Tuesday 8 February 2011 Professor Rosanna Peeling and Professor David Mabey from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine will be giving a presentation on the prevention of congenital syphilis to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases - the first time syphilis, which kills half of all under ones who contract it in developing countries, has been addressed by this group.

Professor Peeling, Chair of Diagnostics Research and Professor Mabey, a physician specialising in Infectious and Tropical Diseases will report on progress of The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's three- year research project to determine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using simple rapid tests to increase coverage of syphilis screening in prenatal and high risk populations in the developing world.

The research will demonstrate the benefit of using these tests to prevent pregnant women from having stillbirths and to save babies from congenital syphilis.

Syphilis - the facts

• Over a million women and families are having to face the trauma of repeated pregnancy loss, stillbirth or children born infected with and sick from syphilis
• Two million pregnant women are infected with syphilis globally per year
• 1.2 million of these transmit the infection to their baby, who may be stillborn, born early, born with a low birth weight, or congenitally infected as a result
• Between 750,000 and one million babies die each year from syphilis (including stillbirths)
• Congenital syphilis is entirely preventable and can be diagnosed and treated for around £1 per unborn child
• There is good evidence to suggest that syphilis enhances the sexual transmission of HIV, and some to suggest it enhances mother to child transmission of HIV, therefore screening and treatment for syphilis could help reduce the incidence of HIV
• Preventing and treating congenital syphilis could help save up to a million lives a year worldwide
• Tackling congenital syphilis will have a high impact on neonatal deaths, the area that has least improved in under 5 mortality, a target of Millennium Development Goal 4.

"We are delighted that the All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases is dedicating one of their select annual meetings to addressing congenital syphilis," says Professor Rosanna Peeling. "We will have all witnessed the impact of the recently launched Save the Children's No Child Born To Die campaign - a call to prevent eight million children from dying each year before they reach their fifth birthday. If we work together to stamp out congenital syphilis, an entirely preventable and treatable disease, we would go a long way to achieve the goal of reducing the under five mortality rate by two thirds."

"I am heartened to see that the UK Government, following the publication of the DFID consultation report on Maternal and Child Health, recognises the need to champion the elimination of congenital syphilis by ensuring that '... every pregnant woman is screened for syphilis, and that every pregnant woman with syphilis is
treated'" (Professor George Rutherford, Institute for Global Health, University of California).

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's research project, run by their Diagnostics Centre, has focused on high burden areas in seven countries (Brazil, China, Haiti, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) where the London School has previously evaluated rapid tests for syphilis. The full results of the project are due to be submitted in June 2011.