Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jan 4;14(1):e0209906.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209906. eCollection 2019.

Fetal and infant mortality of congenital syphilis reported to the Health Information System

Surama Valena Elarrat Canto  1 , Maria Alix Leite Araújo  2 , Angélica Espinosa Miranda  3 , Ana Rita Paulo Cardoso  1 , Rosa Lívia Freitas de Almeida  2
Affiliations

Fetal and infant mortality of congenital syphilis reported to the Health Information System

Surama Valena Elarrat Canto et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Congenital syphilis (CS) is a major cause of mortality in several countries, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. This study aimed to analyze fetal and infant mortality of CS reported to the Health Information System in a State in Northeastern Brazil.

Methods and results: This was a cross-sectional study that analyzed the deaths of CS from 2010 to 2014 through the linkage of the Mortality Information System (SIM) and the Notifiable Diseases Information System (Sinan). The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 was used to calculate the rates of Fetal, Perinatal, Neonatal (early and late), and Postneonatal Mortality. Simple linear regression was performed. Fisher's exact test or Pearson's chi-square test were used for comparison of proportions and Student's t-test was used for comparison of means. Of the 414 cases reported to the SIM as deaths possibly caused by CS, 44 (10.6%) presented CS as the underlying cause. From 2010 to 2014 the Infant Mortality Rate of CS was 16.3 per 100,000 live births (y = 0.65x + 14.33, R2 = 0.2338, p = 0.003). There was an 89.4% underreporting of deaths. Perinatal deaths and fetal deaths of CS accounted for 87.7% and 73.9% of total deaths, respectively.

Conclusions: The results of the study revealed a significant Fetal and Infant Mortality rate of CS and demonstrated the importance of using the linkage method in studies that involve the analysis of secondary data obtained from mortality and disease reporting systems. The underreporting of CS as a cause of fetal and infant mortality leads to unawareness of the reality of deaths from this disease, hindering the development of public policies aimed at its prevention.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Deterministic record linkage between the Sistema de informação sobre mortalidade (SIM), Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação (Sinan) Congenital Syphilis and the Sinan Syphilis in Pregnancy databases.
Ceará, Brazil, 2010–2014.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Infant Mortality rate of Congenital Syphilis reported to the sistema de informação sobre mortalidade (SIM) and after linkage between the Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação (Sinan) congenital syphilis and the sinan syphilis in pregnancy.
Ceará, Brazil, 2010–2014.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Infant Mortality rate of congenital syphilis after linkage.
Ceará, Brazil, 2010–2014.
Fig 4
Fig 4. The fetal, perinatal, neonatal (early and late) and postneonatal mortality rate of congenital syphilis.
Ceará, Brazil, 2010–2014.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Newman L, Kamb M, Hawkes S, Gomez G, Say L, Seuc A, et al. Global estimates of syphilis in pregnancy and associated adverse outcomes: analysis of multinational antenatal surveillance data. PLoSMed. 2013;10 (2): e1001396 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001396 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Su JR, Brooks LC, Davis DW, Torrone EA, Weinstock HS. Congenital syphilis: trends in mortality and morbidity in the United States, 1999 through 2013. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2016; 214 (3): 381–9. 10.1016/j.ajog.2015.10.007 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arnesen L, Martinez G, Mainero L, Serruya S, Durán P. Gestational syphilis and stillbirth in Latin America and the Caribbean. Int J GynaecolObstet. 2015; 128(3):241–5. 10.1016/j.ijgo.2014.09.017 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Organización panamericana de la salud. Iniciativa Regional para la eliminación de la transmission materno infantil del VIH y de la sífilis congénita em América Latina y el Caribe: estratégia de monitoreo regional. Washington; 2010.
    1. Kamb ML, Caffé S, Perez F, Bolan G, Ghidinelli MM. Cuba eliminates mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis: a call to action for the Americas Region. J Bras Doenças Sex Transm.2015; 27(1–2):3–5. 10.5533/DST-2177-8264-2015271-201 - DOI