Syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus infections among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic of Gondar family guidance association, Northwest Ethiopia: implication for prevention of mother to child transmission

Abstract

Background Sexually transmitted infections constitute a major public health problem worldwide. Syphilis and HIV infections cause various adverse pregnancy outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HIV and syphilis infections among pregnant women at Gondar Family Guidance Association clinic, northwest Ethiopia. Methods A retrospective study was conducted using sociodemographic and laboratory data obtained from registration books of Gondar Family Guidance Association clinic from January 2011 to April 2015. A binary logistic regression model was fit to identify factors associated with HIV and syphilis infections. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated to determine the strength of association between factors associated with HIV and syphilis infections. A p -value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 3504 pregnant women were included in the study from January 2011 to April 2015. The seroprevalence of HIV, and syphilis were 145 (4.1%) and 66(1.9%), respectively. Twenty-three (0.66%) women were co-infected. Age group 20–29 years (AOR: 3.86; 95% CI: 1.36–10.89), age group ≥30 years (AOR: 6.08; 95% CI: 2.04–18.14) compared to age < 20 year, and HIV-infection (AOR: 14.6; 95% CI: 8.49–25.18) were significantly associated with syphilis infection. There was a decline in trend seroprevalence of HIV from 5.2% in 2011 to 2.1% in 2015; and decline in syphilis seroprevalence from 2.6% in 2011 to 1.6% in 2015 but not statistically significant. Conclusion The data showed that syphilis and HIV infections are still critical public health concerns among pregnant women. Screening of all pregnant women for these infections is valuable. Further community-based studies to identify risk factors are necessary.

HIV/AIDS and Syphilis Sero-prevalence Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care Center in Rwanda

“…Also our finding are in accordance with previous study conducted in Democratic Republic of Congo where HIV infection rate was estimated to be 3.6% [12]. Furthermore, the observed HIV prevalence of 4.2% and syphilis of 1.2% in this study are consistent with the study conducted at Gondar, Ethiopia 4.1% and 1.9% respectively [13]. However, HIV prevalence observed in this study is a bit higher compared to the national prevalence of HIV (3%) in general population and the prevalence of Syphilis was also a bit high compared to 1.4% found in pregnant women at national level in Rwanda [14,15].…”

“…Also, it is in accordance with Roch Fabien Niama et al, where in their finding, age group above 25 year of age had increased risk of infection than others [12]. This may be attributed to the increased risk of exposure to STIs, since this age group is very sexually active [13] In this study, a bigger proportion of HIV and syphilis positivity were seen in cohabitant women compared to the married women. This is similar to the previous studies suggesting them to be a high risk group compared to the married women or general population [12,18,19].…”

“…In addition to that, a slight higher or deferent prevalence of syphilis were reported by previous studies conducted in Republic of Congo 3.92% [12], in Tanzania 2.5% [16]. Ethiopia, Gondar 2.9% [17], Gondar, Ethiopia 3.7%, Sub Saharan Africa 2.87% and Nigeria 7.28% [13]. The variation in prevalence across studies might be attributed to the differences in method of diagnosis used, sample size, and study setting.…”

“…The variation in prevalence across studies might be attributed to the differences in method of diagnosis used, sample size, and study setting. The other factors attributed to the variation in prevalence might be due to the increased access to healthcare facilities for pregnant women for sexually transmitted disease screening at the ANC clinic [13].…”

The prevalence and associated factors of Treponema pallidum among HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals who attended voluntary counseling and testing center of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study design

“…[11][12][13] Another study conducted from Gondar Family Guidance Association had shown that 1.9% of the pregnant women were positive for syphilis. 14 Syphilis clinical manifestations are classified into multiple stages as primary, secondary, latent (early and late) and tertiary syphilis. 9 Primary syphilis facilitates the transmission of HIV infection and it can contribute to the spread of HIV infection.…”