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Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia
BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections are a serious public health problem. Syphilis, a multistage, curable chronic disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum, remains a major health problem worldwide. The disease re-emerged in the era of HIV in many countries despite the accessibility...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7868618/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33550909 http://dx.doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2021.8 |
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author | Wanni, Nahid H. O. Dossary, Reem Al Obeid, Obeid E. Qahtani, Nourah Hasan Al Siddiqui, Zaheenul Islam El-Badry, Ayman A. Alkharsah, Khaled R. |
author_facet | Wanni, Nahid H. O. Dossary, Reem Al Obeid, Obeid E. Qahtani, Nourah Hasan Al Siddiqui, Zaheenul Islam El-Badry, Ayman A. Alkharsah, Khaled R. |
author_sort | Wanni, Nahid H. O. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections are a serious public health problem. Syphilis, a multistage, curable chronic disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum, remains a major health problem worldwide. The disease re-emerged in the era of HIV in many countries despite the accessibility of curative therapy and continuing public health efforts to eliminate it. OBJECTIVE: Analyse the seropositivity for syphilis. DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional. SETTING: Tertiary hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied individuals who underwent screening tests for syphilis between January 2014 and December 2018. The samples that were positive by both screening and confirmatory tests were considered as confirmed positive for syphilis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Syphilis positivity identified by chemiluminescence immunoassay, the rapid plasma reagin test, and specific antibodies against Treponema pallidum. SAMPLE SIZE: 11 832. RESULTS: Of the 11 832, 54 (0.45%) were confirmed as seropositive for syphilis. Thirty-three (61.1%) were non-Saudi; 21 (38.9%) were Saudis. Thirty (55.6%) cases were males. Twenty-two (40.74%) were married and 29 (53.70%) were unmarried. Of the 54 diagnosed as syphilis positive, 28 (51.9%) were expatriate workers screened for pre-employment. The percentage of syphilis among Saudis was 0.36%. In an overall chi-square analysis, a P<.0001 indicated a difference among nationalities in the frequency of syphilis. A post-hoc analysis showed that Somalians (P=.004) and Sudanese (P=.005) differed significantly from other nationalities. CONCLUSION: The study showed that syphilis was low among the screened population. More than half of the syphilis positive cases in this study were household employees. Screening for syphilis assists in planning complementary services for target populations and improves syphilis control. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective design. Hospital-based findings may not be representative of the seroprevalence of syphilis in the general population. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7868618 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78686182021-02-09 Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia Wanni, Nahid H. O. Dossary, Reem Al Obeid, Obeid E. Qahtani, Nourah Hasan Al Siddiqui, Zaheenul Islam El-Badry, Ayman A. Alkharsah, Khaled R. Ann Saudi Med Original Article BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections are a serious public health problem. Syphilis, a multistage, curable chronic disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum, remains a major health problem worldwide. The disease re-emerged in the era of HIV in many countries despite the accessibility of curative therapy and continuing public health efforts to eliminate it. OBJECTIVE: Analyse the seropositivity for syphilis. DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional. SETTING: Tertiary hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied individuals who underwent screening tests for syphilis between January 2014 and December 2018. The samples that were positive by both screening and confirmatory tests were considered as confirmed positive for syphilis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Syphilis positivity identified by chemiluminescence immunoassay, the rapid plasma reagin test, and specific antibodies against Treponema pallidum. SAMPLE SIZE: 11 832. RESULTS: Of the 11 832, 54 (0.45%) were confirmed as seropositive for syphilis. Thirty-three (61.1%) were non-Saudi; 21 (38.9%) were Saudis. Thirty (55.6%) cases were males. Twenty-two (40.74%) were married and 29 (53.70%) were unmarried. Of the 54 diagnosed as syphilis positive, 28 (51.9%) were expatriate workers screened for pre-employment. The percentage of syphilis among Saudis was 0.36%. In an overall chi-square analysis, a P<.0001 indicated a difference among nationalities in the frequency of syphilis. A post-hoc analysis showed that Somalians (P=.004) and Sudanese (P=.005) differed significantly from other nationalities. CONCLUSION: The study showed that syphilis was low among the screened population. More than half of the syphilis positive cases in this study were household employees. Screening for syphilis assists in planning complementary services for target populations and improves syphilis control. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective design. Hospital-based findings may not be representative of the seroprevalence of syphilis in the general population. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre 2021-01 2021-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7868618/ /pubmed/33550909 http://dx.doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2021.8 Text en Copyright © 2021, Annals of Saudi Medicine, Saudi Arabia This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). The details of which can be accessed at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Original Article Wanni, Nahid H. O. Dossary, Reem Al Obeid, Obeid E. Qahtani, Nourah Hasan Al Siddiqui, Zaheenul Islam El-Badry, Ayman A. Alkharsah, Khaled R. Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia |
title | Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia |
title_full | Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia |
title_fullStr | Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia |
title_full_unstemmed | Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia |
title_short | Seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia |
title_sort | seropositivity of syphilis among individuals screened in a tertiary hospital in the eastern province of saudi arabia |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7868618/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33550909 http://dx.doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2021.8 |
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