Preventing Congenital Syphilis

Nearly 1.5 million pregnant women are infected with syphilis each year, and it is estimated that half of them will have adverse birth outcomes. Congenital syphilis remains a major public health issue, despite the fact that maternal syphilis is easy to detect and treat. Multiple barriers impair the elimination of congenital syphilis. Syphilis is often stigmatized and of low priority, and even women attending prenatal care early are potentially facing multiple clinical barriers. The study objective is to use implementation research methods to evaluate a multifaceted intervention to increase the use of evidence-based clinical procedures to prevent congenital syphilis. The investigators will perform a facility-based, two-arm parallel cluster randomized implementation trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. The intervention will be multifaceted, tailored by formative research, and include: opinion leaders, reminders, monitoring, and feedback; point-of-care rapid tests; and treatment kits to be used immediately if the rapid test is positive. Improving syphilis screening and treatment will be promoted as a key step toward improving the quality of all components of prenatal care.