Original Article
SEROPOSITIVITY OF SYPHILIS OF THE PATIENTS VISITING GYNAECOLOGY, STI AND DERMATOLOGY CLINIC OF SULAV HOSPITAL, BELBARI, MORANG
Chaudhary DK, 1 Shah PK, 1 Khanal H 2
1Department of Microbiology, St. Xavier’s College, Maitighar, Kathmandu, 2Sulav Hospital, Belbari, Morang
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by T. pallidum subspecies Pallidum. The disease is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary stages. Latent syphilis is the stage in which the infection performs a disappearing act of sorts. |
Objective: The main purpose of the study is to find out asymptomatic seroprevalence of syphilis from the blood samples. |
Methods: This Cross-sectional study was carried out in pathological lab of Sulav Hospital , Belbari, Morang between May 2011- October 2011. A total of 2139 blood samples of age 16-50 years patients were enrolled. Sera were screened by rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test kit. RPR reactive samples only were further tested by T. pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) test kit. |
Results: From the study, overall syphilis seropositivity was 0.51%. The highest seropositivity of 0.74% (P-value 0.776) was found in age group 31-35 years with female predominant. Married & previous pregnant population had the highest seroprevalent of 1.21 (p-value 0.001) and 0.90% (p-value 0.266) respectively. Mongolian, Ethnic group, Secondary level literate population, abroad job seekers & returners population and patient with STIs history had the highest seroprevalent of 0.76% (p-value 0.52), 0.57% (p-value 0.977), 0.86% (p-value 0.728%) and 5.2% (p-value 0.001) respectively. |
Conclusions: Study of seroprevalence of syphilis in asymptomatic cases is very important which help in the control of its consequence and prevent the further progression of syphilis. |
Key words: Asymptomatic, Latent stage, Rapid plasma reagin, Screening, Syphilis.  |