Gaps in the Congenital Syphilis Prevention Cascade: Qualitative Findings from Kern County, California

Background. Congenital syphilis is preventable through timely access to prenatal care, syphilis screening and treatment of pregnant women diagnosed as infected. In 2018, California had the second highest number of congenital syphilis cases in the United States (U.S.), a nearly 2-fold increase in cases since 2014. This study assessed gaps in preventing congenital syphilis in the high morbidity region of Kern County, California. Methods. Between May 2018 and January 2019, we conducted five focus group discussions with pregnant/postpartum women and ten semi-structured interviews with prenatal care providers in Kern County. Focus group and interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to identify emergent themes pertaining to facilitators and barriers at each step (prenatal care, syphilis screening and treatment) in the congenital syphilis prevention cascade.Results. Gaps in congenital syphilis prevention discussed in focus group discussions with pregnant/postpartum women were related to limited prenatal care access, social-, economic-, and cultural-barriers, and substance use and co-occurring intimate partner/domestic violence. The gaps identified from interviews with prenatal care providers included social economic vulnerabilities of pregnant women and stigma and shame around the vulnerabilities, distrust in medical system, prenatal substance use, limited prenatal substance use disorder treatment facilities, and inadequate provider training on context-specific congenital syphilis management strategies. Gaps in partner notification, screening and treatment for syphilis were brought up by pregnant/postpartum women and prenatal care providers. Conclusions. Congenital syphilis continues to increase in Kern County and throughout the U.S. In high syphilis morbidity areas, comprehensive and tailored public health approaches addressing setting-specific gaps in prenatal screening and treatment are needed.

1166. Reverse Syphilis Screening and Adherence to The Congenital Syphilis Guidelines: Institutional Experience

Background This study is analysis the consequences of the reverse syphilis screening on the management of newborns exposed to maternal syphilis, and pediatric physicians’ adherence to the existing guidelines. Methods We conducted a 5-year retrospective review of the maternal population and their newborns diagnosed with syphilis. Women with positive results (TT+/NTT+) and discordant (TT+/NTT-/TT+) and their newborns were included in the analysis. Results Per American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the 202 newborns were divided in two groups: proved or highly probable and possible congenital syphilis (Group A, n=102) and less likely and unlikely congenital syphilis (Group B, n=100). Except for the RPR, none of the other laboratory tests showed higher odds for predicting congenital syphilis. The RPR titers above 1:16 were only identified among newborns belonging to the Group A (5%); 32 patients (31%) in the Group A and 19 (9%) in the Group B had an RPR titer equal to or below 1:8. An RPR titer equal to or above 1:4 was almost three times more likely to be identified in patients from Group A (OR 2.91; CI 1.51- 5.59, p< 0.05). The newborns with non-reactive RPRs represented 64% of the patients in the Group A and 47% of them were born to mother with non-reactive RPR also (mothers with discordant results). Among the Group B, 82% of the neonates had a non-reactive RPR and 54% were delivered to mother with non-reactive RPRs. Babies in Group B had additional work-up performed 69% (n=37) of the time; 15% of these babies were treated with intramuscular penicillin which does not follow established AAP guidelines. Statistical analysis of the laboratory tests used for the congenital syphilis work-up Result table comparing the two groups of newborns Conclusion The reverse syphilis screening and non-adherence to the guidelines led to additional screening to half of the newborns in both groups. This study highlights the need for a comprehensive maternal history at the time of delivery that is effectively communicated between the providers. This might lead to greater congruence with the established AAP guidelines. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

Syphilis testing adherence among women with livebirth deliveries: Indianapolis 2014-2016

Background The number of congenital syphilis (CS) cases in the United States are increasing. Effective prevention of CS requires routine serologic testing and treatment of infected pregnant women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends testing all pregnant women at their first prenatal visit and subsequent testing at 28 weeks gestation and delivery for women at increased risk. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional cohort study of syphilis testing among pregnant women with a livebirth delivery from January 2014 to December 2016 in Marion County, Indiana. We extracted and linked maternal and infant data from the vital records in a local health department to electronic health records available in a regional health information exchange. We examined syphilis testing rates and factors associated with non-testing among women with livebirth delivery. We further examined these rates and factors among women who reside in syphilis prevalent areas. Results Among 21260 pregnancies that resulted in livebirths, syphilis testing in any trimester, including delivery, increased from 71.7% in 2014 to 86.6% in 2016. The number of maternal syphilis tests administered only at delivery decreased from 16.6% in 2014 to 4.04% in 2016. Among women living in areas with high syphilis rates, syphilis screening rates increased from 79.6% in 2014 to 94.2% in 2016. Conclusion Improvement in prenatal syphilis screening is apparent and encouraging, yet roughly 1-in-10 women do not receive syphilis screening during pregnancy. Adherence to recommendations set out by CDC improved over time. Given increasing congenital syphilis cases, the need for timely diagnoses and prevention of transmission from mother to fetus remains a priority for public health.

Countering the rise of syphilis: A role for doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis?

Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) holds the potential to mitigate increasing rates of syphilis among sexual minority men (SMM) in the US yet has received limited attention. Since evaluation of this intervention in actual populations is not currently feasible, we used agent-based models (ABM) to assess the population-level impact of this strategy. We adapted ABM of HIV and HPV transmission, representing a population of 10,230 SMM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. Parameter inputs were derived from the literature, and ABM outputs during the pre-intervention period were calibrated to local surveillance data. Intervention scenarios varied doxycycline uptake by 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%, while assuming continued condom use and syphilis screening and treatment. Under each intervention scenario, we incorporated treatment adherence at the following levels: 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%. Long-term population impact of prophylactic doxycycline was measured using the cumulative incidence over the 10-year period and the percentage of infections prevented attributable to doxycycline at year 10. An uptake scenario of 20% with an adherence level of 80% would reduce the cumulative incidence of infections by 10% over the next decade, translating to 57 fewer cases per 1000 SMM. At year 10, under the same uptake and adherence level, 22% of infections would be prevented due to doxycycline PEP in the instances where condoms were not used or failed. Findings suggest that doxycycline PEP will have a modest impact on syphilis incidence when assuming a reasonable level of uptake and adherence. Doxycycline PEP may be most appropriate as a secondary prevention measure to condoms and enhanced syphilis screening for reducing infections among SMM.

Estimation of benzathine penicillin G demand for congenital syphilis elimination with adoption of dual HIV/syphilis rapid diagnostic tests in eleven high burden countries

Background WHO recommends use of rapid dual HIV/syphilis tests for screening pregnant women (PW) during antenatal care to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Scale-up of testing implies a need to accurately forecast and procure benzathine penicillin (BPG) to treat the additionally identified PW with syphilis. Methods Country-reported ANC coverage, PW syphilis screening and treatment coverage values in 2019 were scaled linearly to EMTCT targets by 2030 (constant increasing slope from 2019 figures to 95% in 2030) for 11 focus countries. Antenatal syphilis screening coverage was substituted with HIV screening coverage to estimate potential contribution of rapid dual HIV/syphilis tests in identifying additional PW with syphilis. BPG demand was calculated for 2019–2030 accordingly. Results The estimated demand for BPG (in 2.4 million unit vials) using current maternal syphilis prevalence and treatment coverage will increase from a baseline of 414,459 doses in 2019 to 683,067 doses (+65%) in 2021 assuming immediate replacement of single HIV test kits with rapid dual HIV/syphilis tests for these 11 countries. Continued scale up of syphilis screening and treatment coverage to reach elimination coverage of 95% will result in an estimated demand increase of 160%, (663,969 doses) from 2019 baseline for a total demand of 1,078,428 BPG doses by 2030. Conclusions Demand for BPG will increase following adoption of rapid dual HIV/syphilis test kits due to increases in maternal diagnoses of syphilis. To eliminate congenital syphilis, MNCH clinical programs will need to synergize with disease surveillance programs to accurately forecast BPG demand with scale up of antenatal syphilis screening to ensure adequate treatment is available for pregnant women diagnosed with syphilis.

Patient perspectives on the implementation of routinised syphilis screening with HIV viral load testing: Qualitative process evaluation of the Enhanced Syphilis Screening Among HIV-positive Men trial

Background Syphilis infections have been on the rise, affecting men living with HIV in urban centres disproportionately. Since individuals in HIV care undergo routine blood testing, HIV clinics provide practical opportunities to conduct regular and frequent syphilis testing. Following the implementation of a routine syphilis testing intervention in HIV outpatient clinics, we conducted a qualitative process evaluation of patient experiences to measure patient acceptability, barriers to implementation, and facilitators of successful uptake. Methods Upon completion of the trial, which took place at four HIV outpatient clinics in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, we recruited male patients attending these clinics from November 2017 to April 2018. Interviews were conducted on-site and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. All participants provided written informed consent. Interview data were analyzed using grounded theory, assessing qualitative modulators of effective uptake of routinised syphilis testing. Results A total of 21 male patients were interviewed. Overall, interviewees found the clinical intervention acceptable, endorsing the practice of routinising syphilis testing alongside regular viral load bloodwork. Some men preferred, based on their self-assessment of syphilis risk, to opt out of testing; we considered this as a potential barrier to uptake of population-wide routinised syphilis testing. Interviewees also identified multiple facilitators of successful uptake, including the de-stigmatising of STI testing as a consequence of the universal nature of routinised testing. Participants recommended a routinised syphilis screening intervention to give patients peace of mind surrounding their sexual health. Participants identified HIV care clinics as comfortable and efficient locations to offer testing. Conclusions Overall, most men were in support of implementing routinised syphilis testing as part of standard HIV care. From the patient perspective, HIV care clinics are convenient places to be tested for syphilis, and the routine approach was viewed to have a de-stigmatisng effect on syphilis testing. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02019043; registered December 23, 2013.

Group Testing Large Populations for SARS-CoV-2

Group testing, the testing paradigm which combines multiple samples within a single test, was introduced in 1943 by Robert Dorfman. Since its original proposal for syphilis screening, group testing has been applied in domains such as fault identification in electrical and computer networks, machine learning, data mining, and cryptography. TheSARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to proposals for using group testing in its original context of identifying infected individuals in a population with few tests. Studies suggest that non-adaptive group testing - in which all the tests are determined in advance - for SARS-CoV-2could help save 20% to 90% of tests depending on the prevalence. However, no systematic approach for comparing different non-adaptive group testing strategies currently exists. In this paper we develop a software platform for evaluating non-adaptive group testing strategies in both a noiseless setting and in the presence of realistic noise sources, modelled on published experimental observations, which makes them applicable to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the dominant type of tests for SARS-CoV-2. This modular platform can be used with a variety of group testing designs and decoding algorithms. We use it to evaluate the performance of near-doubly-regular designs and a decoding algorithm based on an integer linear programming formulation, both of which are known to be optimal in some regimes. We find savings between 40% and 91% of tests for prevalences up to 10% when a small error (below 5%) is allowed. We also find that the performance degrades gracefully with noise. We expect our modular, user-friendly, publicly available platform to facilitate empirical research into non-adaptive group testing for SARS-CoV-2.

A case of syphilis with an extremely high RPR titer

It remains unidentified why this patient has an extremely high Rapid Plasma Reagin Titer (RPR) 1: 2048. A false positive result was ruled out by a Treponemal test. To ensure accuracy, repeat tests were requested for both the Non-Treponemal and Treponemal Tests in the same laboratory, and the results came back the same. In the Traditional Algorithm, Positive Nontreponemal Syphilis screening tests are confirmed by Treponemal tests, although the latter is not quantitative. The lack of full sensitivity in the Traditional Algorithm Testing has led the CDC and some other centers to adopt Reverse Sequence Testing. The resurgence of syphilis after 20 years could lead to mutagenic strain thus making it relevant for a need for heightened awareness.