Syphilis sero-positivity in recently admitted and long inpatients : screening, prevalence and diagnostic profile
dc.contributor.author | Henning, M.P. | |
dc.contributor.author | Kruger, Christa | |
dc.contributor.author | Fletcher, Lizelle | |
dc.contributor.email | christa.kruger@up.ac.za | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-01-31T13:17:27Z | |
dc.date.available | 2013-01-31T13:17:27Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2012-12 | |
dc.description.abstract | BACKGROUND: Syphilis research has neglected the prevalence of the disease among psychiatric patients, and traditional syphilis screening has been reported as inadequate. OBJECTIVES: (i) To assess the syphilis prevalence among psychiatric patients; (ii) to compare psychiatric diagnoses of syphilis-infected and -uninfected patients; (iii) to assess self-reported high-risk sexual behaviour; (iv) to establish syphilis/HIV co-morbidity; and (v) to investigate the performance of the rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test in syphilis screening, compared with the Treponema pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) test. METHODS: Psychiatric inpatients at Weskoppies Hospital, Pretoria, who consented to participate in the study (N=195) were categorised according to gender and length of admission (long-term or recent). Non-treponemal RPR, confirmatory TPHA, HIV-rapid and HIV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests were performed. A reactive TPHA test was used to diagnose syphilis. RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of syphilis was 11.7%. There was no significant association between TPHA sero-positivity and primary psychiatric diagnosis or self-reported high-risk sexual behaviour. Significant co-morbidity existed between syphilis and HIV (p=0.012). Compared with the TPHA test, the RPR test performed poorly, identifying only 2/23 patients who had a sero-positive TPHA test (8.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of syphilis was higher than anticipated, supporting the need for routine testing. The significant co-morbidity and alarming prevalence of HIV and syphilis warrant testing for both conditions in all psychiatric admissions. Current syphilis screening with a single RPR test is inadequate; both RPR and TPHA tests should be performed. | en_US |
dc.description.librarian | ay2013 | en |
dc.description.librarian | am2013 | en |
dc.description.librarian | ay2013 | en |
dc.description.sponsorship | The Research Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria | en_US |
dc.description.uri | http://www.sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp | en_US |
dc.identifier.citation | Henning, MP, Kruger, C & Fletcher, L 2012, 'Syphilis sero-positivity in recently admitted and long inpatients : screening, prevalence and diagnostic profile', South African Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 171-175. | en_US |
dc.identifier.issn | 1608-9685 (print) | |
dc.identifier.issn | 2078-6786 (online) | |
dc.identifier.other | 10.7196/SAJP.358 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/20920 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Health and Medical Publishing Group | en_US |
dc.rights | Health and Medical Publishing Group | en_US |
dc.subject | Psychiatric inpatients | en_US |
dc.subject | Syphilis | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Mental health services -- South Africa | en |
dc.subject.lcsh | Syphilis -- Diagnosis -- South Africa | en |
dc.title | Syphilis sero-positivity in recently admitted and long inpatients : screening, prevalence and diagnostic profile | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |