title: [Syphilis in parturients: aspects related to the sex partner].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the sociodemographic and behavioral profile of sex partners, the proportion of those inadequately treated as well as to verify how many of them were inadequately treated and why some were not treated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quantitative study with data collected from May to October, 2008 at five public maternities in Fortaleza, Ceará. A survey was carried out with parturients who were hospitalized with syphilis and had a stable sex partner. We analyzed sociodemographic variables and those related to communication, diagnosis and treatment of sex partners. The data were entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and were analyzed using frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study included 56 pregnant women. Most sexual partners were young adults aged on average 29 years, 50% of them had studied for less than seven years, 82.1 worked and 46.4% had a family income of less than a minimum wage. Of all the partners, 92.9% were the child's father and 69.6% lived with the women. Fifty percent and 12% were alcohol and drug users, respectively. Most partners (75.0%) were told about the diagnosis by the women, and in 78.6% of cases they were aware of the VDRL result before or during the prenatal period. However, 25.0% of the women did not communicate the result to their partners for the following reasons: not knowing the importance of the partner's treatment (50.0%), not being together after the diagnosis (42.9%) and having a quarrel (7.1%). Of the partners who were informed about the result before or during the prenatal period, 56.0% were treated and six (42.8%) were considered to have been properly treated. Among the ones who did not receive treatment, 63.6% refused it because they did not feel sick, because they did not believe in the treatment and because they were afraid of injections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Partners are told about the syphilis diagnosis of the pregnant women; however, only a few are properly treated.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Saúde Coletiva, Universidade de Fortaleza, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Luiza de Araújo
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Campos
authors.forename: Maria Alix Leite
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: Simone Paes de
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Roumayne Fernandes Vieira
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: Marcelo Luiz Carvalho
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior; D002648:Child; D016358:Contact Tracing; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000175:diagnosis; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013587:Syphilis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D055815:Young Adult