Congenital syphilis is entirely preventable-yet new research shows critical gaps in prenatal screening that are leaving some infants at risk. With\u202ffunding\u202ffrom the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Population and Public Health), researchers from ICES\u00a0and\u202fQueen’s University\u202ffound that one in five pregnancies in Ontario did not receive syphilis screening in the first trimester. Furthermore, delayed screening was more common among equity-deserving populations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The study\u202fincluded\u202f551,706 pregnancies\u202ffrom January 2018 to December 2023 and found that 507,169 were screened for syphilis, 435,162 of which were screened in the first trimester. While most pregnancies included in the study underwent syphilis screening, approximately three per cent of these pregnancies were screened late (in the third trimester or at delivery).\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Canada, the\u202frate\u202fof\u202fcongenital\u202fsyphilis\u202fin 2023\u202fwas 14.5 cases per 100,000 live births-an increase of\u202f220\u202fper cent\u202fsince\u202f2018-indicating\u202fan evolving epidemiology of infectious syphilis among\u202fwomen. As untreated congenital syphilis can lead to severe outcomes, including infant death, these trends underscore the importance of prenatal screening as a key preventive strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Congenital syphilis should not be happening in a high-income country with universal healthcare. When\u202fone\u202fin\u202ffive\u202fpregnancies are not screened on time, it signals that our current systems are not reaching everyone equitably.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Dr. Sahar Saeed, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Queen’s University and senior author<\/p>\n
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These findings highlight an urgent need to rethink how screening is delivered. “Relying solely on traditional prenatal care models may not be sufficient to reach populations who face barriers to accessing care,” says Amanda Featherstone, lead author of the study. “Providing non-judgemental, comprehensive care in tandem with complementary strategies, such as opportunistic screening and community-based outreach programs with the use of point-of-care testing, is a critical next step.” These approaches have shown promise in reaching underserved populations and closing access gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The study “Uptake of prenatal syphilis screening and\u202fits\u202fdeterminants in Ontario, Canada: a population-based retrospective cohort study”\u202fis in the\u202fMay issue\u202fof\u202fCMAJ.\u202f<\/p>\n
This work was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Catalyst Grant (STBBI Research in Canada: Beyond HIV\/AIDS and Hepatitis C) (no. SR7 – 196517).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences<\/a><\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n Featherstone, A., et al. (2026). Uptake of prenatal syphilis screening and its determinants in Ontario, Canada: a population-based retrospective cohort study. Canadian Medical Association Journal.\u00a0DOI:\u00a010.1503\/cmaj.251757.\u00a0https:\/\/www.cmaj.ca\/content\/198\/19\/E725<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congenital syphilis is entirely preventable-yet new research shows critical gaps in prenatal screening that are leaving some infants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,2721,84,392,35127,2727,994,1785,2728],"class_list":["post-681510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-congenital-syphilis","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-prenatal","tag-public-health","tag-research","tag-students","tag-syphilis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}