The growing incidence of congenital syphilis in Rio de Janeiro City led the City Health Department to organize the congenital syphilis Elimination Campaigns in 1999 and 2000, in order to call attention to the matter and to qualify health care personnel in the management of the disease. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaigns, following the pregnant women identified with syphilis through the well-established health information systems (SINASC Live births, SIM mortality and SINAN National disease surveillance data system). It became evident that a significant reduction on perinatal morbidity and mortality was achieved on the group of children born to mothers exposed to the campaigns, pointing out that the antenatal routine practice wasn't able to deal with the matter. The low number of congenital syphilis cases found on the surveillance system denotes a huge under-reporting of the disease.
Congenital Syphilis; Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Health Campaigns; Perinatal Mortality
