Prevalence of Syphilis Infection in a Tertiary Rural Hospital: A Five Year Evaluation

Abstract

Syphilis is a blood borne and sexually transmitted disease of global distribution. This study was aimed at determining the trend and prevalence of syphilis across the years among patients attending the Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital, Okada, Nigeria. A retrospective analysis of data of patients attending the Out patients department as well as those attending the anti natal clinic of Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital, Okada,
Nigeria from January 2015 to December 2019.Sera samples were screened for Treponema palladium antibody using commercially available immunochromatic rapid Syphilis based test kits. Out of the 741 screened sera in the 2015 – 2019 study period, 8 (1.1%) were positive for Treponema pallidium antibodies. The prevalence are 0.4%, 1.3%, 0%, 3.8% and 2.8% respectively for the year 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. The gender related distribution for the study periods are not statistically significant with p- values all greater than 0.05. The prevalence of syphilis is low within this community which is an indication of adherence to preventive measures never the less public awareness remains a medium for  eradication of syphilis.

Keywords: Rapid Syphilis test kit, Immunochramatogenic, Treponema pallidium