Gates Foundation blog examines efforts to stop mother-to-child syphilis transmission

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Gary Darmstadt, head of the Family Health Division of the foundation, Wendy Prosser, a research analyst with the Family Health Division, and Damian Walker, a senior program officer at the foundation, examine efforts to stop the transmission of syphilis from mother to child during labor and delivery. "[W]e have been depending on doing only one thing to eliminate the transmission of syphilis from a mom to her baby, and doing it for years: antenatal care," they write. However, "eliminating congenital syphilis only through screening of pregnant women -- is not working," the authors state, and discuss "other innovative ideas that need exploration," including the development of a vaccine (9/13).