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. 1985 Dec;61(6):355–358. doi: 10.1136/sti.61.6.355

Syphilis in pregnant women in Mozambique.

J Liljestrand, S Bergström, F Nieuwenhuis, B Hederstedt
PMCID: PMC1011858  PMID: 3910543

Abstract

To establish the prevalence of syphilis in pregnant women in Mozambique and evaluate present diagnostic methods, 1468 pregnant women in eight of the country's 10 provinces were examined using the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test. Positive serum samples were also analysed using the Treponema pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) assay and one group was also analysed using the fluorescent treponemal antibody absorbed (FTA-ABS) test. The prevalence of VDRL seroreactivity was found to be between 4.5% and 14.6%, whereas the prevalence of treponemal disease as verified by TPHA or FTA-ABS tests was between 1.6% and 9.8%. It is concluded that syphilis is relatively common among pregnant women in Mozambique. The predictive value of a positive VDRL test, when adequately performed, was

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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