It was estimated that over 350 000 adverse birth outcomes including 200 000 stillbirths and newborn deaths were recorded worldwide in 2016. Mother-to-child transmission may lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including foetal loss, neonatal death, low birth weight, stillbirth, and congenital abnormalities. In Ghana, a nationally representative survey in 2017 revealed that syphilis infection prevalence among pregnant women, as well as healthy blood donors, varied between 0.3% and 3.7%. In sub-Saharan Africa, syphilis infection in women of reproductive age group is reported to range from 0.36% to 3.6% whereas rates ranging from 0.71% to 20% have been recorded among blood donors. According to statistics released in 2019 by the World Health Organization (WHO), one percent or more of antenatal care attendees in 38 of 78 reporting countries tested positive for syphilis while among blood donors an estimated 1.6 million units of blood were discarded due to the presence of infectious markers including those caused by Treponemal species. However, syphilis, an example of venereal treponematosis can be acquired via unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected person. Nonvenereal treponematoses include yaws, bejel, and pinta these are not sexually transmitted and thus are not important if found in the blood supply. Treponematosis exists mainly in two forms: venereal and nonvenereal disease. They are a major public health problem worldwide. Treponematoses are bacterial diseases caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum and pertenue. Therefore, the use of pregnant women as a proxy for population estimates could underestimate the burden in the study jurisdiction.
The regional infection rate in the sentinel survey is lower compared to the general population. Significant gender disparity in Treponemal infection rate exists with a male preponderance.
Site-specific infection rate for population-based/sentinel survey was 4.6%/1.1%, 2.0%/0.5%, 1.3%/1.1, and 1.2%/0.3% for Hohoe, Ho, Krachi West, and Tongu, respectively. The five-year treponemal infection rate among the pregnant women in the sentinel survey and prospective blood donors was 0.79% and 2.38%, respectively. Laboratory data extracted include variables such as age, gender, date of blood donation, and Treponema pallidum chromatographic immunoassay results from the blood banks of the four study sites. We analyzed retrospective data from 17,744 prospective blood donors aged 18 to 58 years and 7,817 pregnant women in a sentinel survey with ages from 15 to 49 years at Hohoe, Ho, Tongu, and Krachi West sentinel sites in the Volta and Oti Regions. This study is aimed at comparatively describing the five-year (2013-2017) regional epidemiology of treponemal infection using pregnant women in the sentinel survey and apparently healthy blood donors as a proxy for the general population at four sentinel sites in the Volta and Oti Regions of Ghana. Treponemal infections can be blood-borne with great public health consequences.
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