Congenital syphilis
Health alert
Status: Active
Date issued: An ongoing Northern Territory (NT) syphilis outbreak was declared in 2013.
Issued to: Health professionals
Congenital syphilis occurs when a mother with syphilis passes the infection on to her baby during pregnancy or birth.
Current situation
A Northern Territory (NT) syphilis outbreak was declared in 2013.
In January 2017 all areas of the NT were declared part of a multi-jurisdictional outbreak.
A major concern of the outbreak is the risk of congenital syphilis. This occurs when an unborn baby acquires the syphilis infection before birth.
Alerts to health professionals
Notifiable disease
Congenital syphilis is a notifiable disease.
Information for professionals
| Type | Resource | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Document | NT Guidelines for the Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections in the Primary Health Care setting. Provides a reference to assist with sexual health service delivery by primary health care clinicians. | NT Health |
| Document | Congenital Syphilis Guidelines for the Northern Territory. For assessment and management of syphilis in pregnancy and the neonatal period. | NT Health |
| Website | Contact the syphilis register by calling Darwin 08 8922 7818, Alice Springs 08 8951 7552 or email syphilis_register.ths@nt.gov.au. | Centre for Disease Control |
| Document | This document contains the surveillance case definition for syphilis (congenital), which is nationally notifiable within Australia. State and territory health departments use this definition to decide whether to notify us of a case. | Department of Health and Aged Care |
| Document | Monitoring and surveillance reports for cases of syphilis in Australia | Department of Health and Aged Care |
Information for the public
| Type | Resource | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Webpage | STIs and pregnancy | Health direct - Pregnancy, birth and baby |
| Webpage | Find a sexual health clinic | Northern Territory Government |
| Webpage | Interactive syphilis story Women and Men | Terrence Guyula, AHP |
| Resource | Healthy pregnancy, healthy baby PDF (3.1 MB). A pregnancy book for Aboriginal women of the Northern Territory | NT Health |
Contact
Contact the Public Health Unit’s Centre for Disease Control.
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