Abstract

This study summarizes clinical, laboratory and epidemiological aspects of syphilis and congenital syphilis. An outline is given of an economic evaluation of the programme for the prevention of congenital syphilis. figures available in the Netherlands were used in a previousluy published model for analysis of costs and benefits of the screening for syphilis in pregnancy. Although the costs of testing the individual women are low, the costs of a life-year gained were considerable for the studied year 1988 (48.800 Dutch guilders, about 24.000 U.S. dollars). The incidence of syphilis in pregnancy has not dropped to such a level that the Netherlands could do without any programme for the control of syphilis in pregnancy. Therefore abandoning the current programme in the Netherlands should not be considered in the near future.