Partner notification of pregnant women infected with syphilis in Nairobi, Kenya

We examined partner notification among syphilitic pregnant women in Nairobi . At delivery, 377 women were found to be rapid plasma reagin (RPR) reactiv e. Data were available for 94% of the partners of women who were tested dur ing pregnancy; over 67% of the partners had received syphilis treatment whi le 23% had not sought treatment mainly because they felt healthy. Six per c ent of the women had not informed their partners as they feared blame and/o r violence. Adverse pregnancy outcome was related to lack of partner treatm ent during pregnancy (7% versus 19%, odds ratio (OR) 3.0, 95% confidence in terval (CI) 0.9-10.0). Our data suggest that messages focusing on the healt h of the unborn child have a positive effect on partner notification and in novative and locally adapted strategies for partner notification need more attention.