IgM-antibodies against T. pallidum detected in sera from mothers of stillborn babies in Mozambique by the solid-phase haemadsorption assay (SPHA).

Serum samples taken at the delivery from 27 syphilitic mothers in Mozambique, 16 with stillborn babies and 11 with healthy babies were tested upon presence of IgM antibodies against T. pallidum by the solid-phase haemadsorption assay (SPHA). Fourteen out of the 16 serum samples from mothers with stillborn babies but only one out of the 11 samples from mothers with healthy babies were found positive by the SPHA test. Clinical signs indicative of syphilis are difficult to find in the Maputo area as there were more than 40,000 annual births and only five obstetricians when the study was carried out. It is believed that the findings may indicate those mothers who were serologically positive with the SPHA test had clinically active syphilis and that syphilis might be the cause or a contributory cause of death in 14 of the stillborn babies. The SPHA test was easy to perform and we recommend its adoption by laboratories with facilities to perform the TPHA test.