NEW YORK, June 1 Including a rapid syphilis test in prenatal HIV testing in Haiti could prevent more than 2,000 cases of still-birth, neonatal death or congenital syphilis.Often undiagnosed or untreated, syphilis is passed from mother to child -- even when mothers take part in prenatal programs to prevent the spread of HIV, according to researchers at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and the Groupe Haitien d'Etude du Sarcome de Kaposi et des Infections Opportunistes.The current standard of care in rural Haitian areas without access to syphilis laboratory testing is assessing symptoms and treating if symptoms are found, but relying on symptoms means many cases are missed, according to senior author Dr. Daniel W. Fitzgerald, of Weill Cornell Medical College.For most rural women, making even one repeat visit to a clinic to learn the results of a test and be treated is too much of a personal burden, but requiring only one clinic visit, using rapid testing followed by immediate treatment, proved to be the best strategy, according to the study in the journal PLoS Medicine.Copyright 2007 by UPI
