Accelerating the dual elimination of mother‐to‐child transmission of syphilis and HIV: Why now?

Even though the elimination of congenital syphilis has been on the maternal and child health (MCH) agenda for over a decade, elimination has not yet been achieved; what, then, are the factors currently facilitating the elimination ofmother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of syphilis? In the decade since the 2004 Bulletin of theWorldHealth Organization special issue on maternal and congenital syphilis [1], with its compelling editorial emphasizing an urgent need for new approaches to address congenital syphilis prevention, substantial progress has been made on many fronts. In 2007, WHO released the Global Elimination of Congenital Syphilis: Rationale and Strategy for Action [2], which was developed in consultation with experts and regional disease control officials from around the world. This pivotal strategy calls for action in four distinct “pillars”, namely: (1) ensuring sustained political commitment and advocacy; (2) increasing the access to and quality ofmaternal and newborn health services; (3) screening of all pregnant women and treatment of all positive cases and their partners; and (4) establishing an underlying foundation of surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation for the elimination of congenital syphilis (Fig. 1) [2]. Since the launch of the strategy, many advances have nowmade the elimination of congenital syphilis an attainable goal for every country. The papers in this Supplement describe examples of the progress and achievements toward elimination, as well as a description of the remaining challenges.