[Syphilis in pregnant women in Libreville (Gabon)].

We are reporting here the data of two surveys carried out in Libreville between 1982 and 1985. The first one was done with 153 women at the maternity hospital of le centre hospitalier de Libreville, the other one involved 623 women at antenatal visit. In this last group, the rate of women being seropositive is in inverse ratio to the social status, with women from high income strata having a percentage of 1,5 to 3,4% and women from lower income strata starting at 21% up to 26% of seropositivity. Promiscuity and lack of information among youngster could explain the relatively high percentage of seropositivity among female pupils and students (10.6%). We suggest to consider this group as a risk group for syphilis and to focus all necessary information toward this group and the lower income women strata of the population. Getting back to 153 women at the maternity hospital, 31 of them (20.3%) were seropositive and the ground of their admission to the hospital was: 27 delivery of death in utero, 1 case of abortion at 3 months of pregnancy, 2 cases of miscarriage at the 5 month and one case of hypotrophic fetal development, because the mother was treated for syphilis during pregnancy. The risk of congenital syphilis is low when the mother has been treated during pregnancy, so, the high number of congenital syphilis, 12/47 pregnancies followed up to delivery are an indication of an inadequacy or a total lack of treatment during those pregnancies.