SYPHILIS TESTING BY VDRL AND ITS PREVALANCE IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL: CCM MEDICAL COLLEGE, DURG

Dhruba Hari Chandi, *Dr. Nandkishor J. Bankar, Dr. Karan Singh Chandrakar, Dr. Ramdas B. Brahmane, Karan J. Jain

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In India prevalence of syphilis has been increasing because of lack of health awareness attached to sexually transmitted disease (STDs), poor attendance at STD clinics and syndromic management which misses asymptomatic cases. The diagnosis of this infection is difficult due to inability of this organism to culture it in vitro and limited availability of nucleic acid amplification technique. However, direct visualization of the organism in the presence of lesions and either with facilities of fluorescent and dark field microscopy. Thus, the mainstay of syphilis diagnosis is serology or serodiagnosis. Commercially available treponemal tests can be performed at the point of care. The advantages of rapid tests include their cost and minimal equipment requirement and availability of results within 5-20 minutes. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study samples were collected from the patients who were high risk for the syphilis, with clinical diagnosis of syphilis, pregnant women, patients with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive and drug addicts over a period of 1 year from January 2017 to December 2017. This study was carried out in the department of microbiology at CCM medical college and hospital; kachandur Durg. The test were done using ultra sensitive one step anti-syphilis strip test which is a rapid and immunochromatographic procedure for qualitative detection of Treponemal antibodies generated against Treponema pallidum antigens in human serum /plasma. Result: Out of 4108 samples 905 sample were processed in the department of microbiology which were classified in three group as ANC (784), HIV(68), High risk(53) & in Blood bank 3203 samples were processed for screening of syphilis. Among 784 ANC cases 10(1.28%) were positive, HIV cases 4(5.88%) were positive, in high risk group 4(7.55%) were positive where as in Blood donor 36(1.12%) were positive. The chi-square statistic is 27.7143. The p-value is < 0.00001. The result is significant at p < 0.05. Proportion of cases of ANC, HIV, High risk & Blood donor differs significantly. Conclusion: Our study showed prevalence of syphilis in various groups. Illiteracy and unsafe sexual practices are the major cause of syphilis so; regular educational and training programs should be implemented at community level.

Keywords: VDRL, Seroprevalence, Syphilis, Treponema pallidum, ANC, HIV.