Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic era on Prevalence of Pregnant Women Sero-Positivity for Syphilis, Among Women Attending Antenatal Care in India and Babies Diagnosed with Congenital Syphilis-A Cross-Sectional Research Study

Abstract

Piyush Kumar

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to be a major public health problem globally, affecting the quality of life as well as causing serious morbidity and mortality. STIs have a direct and significant impact on reproductive and pregnant women-child health. They can directly cause infertility, cancers as well as pregnancy-related complications, and indirectly affects individual/ family economies. The information on the number of PW found to be seropositive for Syphilis among women attending antenatal care in India and the number of babies diagnosed with Congenital Syphilis is collected from HMIS electronic records of MoHFW, Government of India with a key objective to know about the impact of covid-19 era i.e. 2020 and 2021 on the prevalence of syphilis by comparing it with the pre-pandemic era of 2018 and 2019. I collected seropositivity data for Syphilis among women attending antenatal care in India and the number of babies diagnosed with Congenital Syphilis across 36 states and union territories of India including all health facilities viz. public, private, rural, urban health facilities. The data is collected, observed, and analyzed with Microsoft office software. The total number of pregnancies and deliveries has shown a declining trend during pandemic years as compared to the pre-pandemic era. Year-wise maximum number of syphilis-positive pregnant women treated for syphilis was reported in 2021. The mean number of babies per month diagnosed with congenital syphilis increased in the pandemic era whereas the mean number of babies per month treated with congenital syphilis decreased during the pandemic era. This research study revealed that there is an increasing trend in, the number of PW tested using the POC test for Syphilis, out of the above, the number of PW found seropositive for Syphilis, a number of babies diagnosed with Congenital Syphilis, and total pregnant women tested found seropositive for Syphilis by any test during pandemic years as compared to pre-pandemic years.

PDF