Local health sector joins global effort to combat congenital syphilis

Jun 28, 2008 News

The vigilance of the local health sector over the years has caused it to champion the fight against congenital syphilis, a feature which Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy said will remain constant.
And to boost its already successful initiatives in this regard, the local health sector, the Minister noted, has joined the global initiative to eliminate the disease which is in fact a major problem across the world.
Dr Ramsammy disclosed that more than 12 million people on an annual basis are infected with syphilis.
He said, too, that there are about two million births per year in which mothers give birth to children who become infected with the disease.
The Minister said that infected children are prone to severe health problems.
According to him, syphilis is one of the major causes of still births because mothers go into birth already infected with the disease.
However, he noted that Guyana has been extremely careful for many years and has maintained a programme where mothers attending clinics are screened for certain things including HIV and syphilis.
The Minister pointed out that syphilis, like HIV, is one of the diseases that can be transmitted from the mother to the child.
He noted that Guyana’s efforts to sustain its Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) is not only focused on HIV but all other diseases that could be transmitted.
He said that many years ago the local efforts were engaged to immunise mothers thus many were immunised against Rubella to prevent transmission.
Dr Ramsammy disclosed that Guyana is one of the active countries that have opted to be a part of the global efforts to eliminate congenital syphilis.
And since local initiatives have been in place long before the global initiative came on board, the Minister said that Guyana has a very low incidence of syphilis transmission from mother to child.
However, he said that despite there is a low rate the health sector still has the onus to be vigilant.
As such the Minister said that sustained appeals are being made to young women who become pregnant to join the clinic early in order for them to be thoroughly examined.
“We would like every pregnant woman to join the antenatal clinic as soon as they find out that they are pregnant, even before they are 12 weeks pregnant,” the Minister said.

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Local health sector joins global effort to combat congenital syphilis

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