Seroprevalence of Syphilis in Persons Attending Public and Private Healthcare Facilities in Port Harcourt, Nigeria: A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum. It is also transmissible from mother to child, or through transfusion of infected blood or blood products. This study was aimed at finding the seroprevalence of syphilis in some high-density urban communities within the Port Harcourt metropolis in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

Materials and Methods: The is a cross-sectional retrospective study involving a review of laboratory records of persons from some urban communities in Port Harcourt, attending public and private healthcare facilities, who underwent laboratory investigations for syphilis.

Results: The blood samples of 316 persons, including 153 males and 163 females, living in five different, contiguous urban communities within Port Harcourt metropolis were analyzed between January 2022 and December 2023. The ages ranged from 6 years to 78 years, the mean age was 35.19, the median was 33.50 and the modal age was 27 years. The overall seroprevalence of syphilis in the study area was 2.2%; the prevalence for males was 2.6% while that for females was 1.8%. There was zero prevalence among the age groups ranging from 1-19 and 70-79 years old; the 20-29 age group had a prevalence of 1.2%, 30-39 (2.0%), 40-49 (1.5%) 50-59 (2.7%), 60-69(11.1%).

Conclusion: This was apparently the first study to determine the prevalence of syphilis in the urban communities and will be of immense help to public health policy makers in formulating measures for prevention, management and control of syphilis.