• Syphilis

This month, two papers deal with congenital syphilis, still a major cause of stillbirth and neonatal death in many parts of the world. Liu et al describe a cohort in which 554 pregnant women were followed up after treatment for syphilis, and report infection in 5.2% infants, including five whose mothers were treated before 28 weeks gestation. There was a correlation between maternal non-treponemal antibodies and the risk of congenital syphilis, which interacted with gestation at treatment (see page 292).1 In mobile, resource poor settings, IgM ABS may not be available, so Wu et al describe the sensitivity and specificity of several diagnostic algorithms in a paper that will be useful in a variety of settings (see page 280).2 The gap between populations still burdened by congenital syphilis and the developed world is highlighted by a case report by Read et al (see page 276)3 in …