Back

Seroprevalence of syphilis among sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya: a retrospective study

Loeb, K.; van Wyk, A.; Milner, K.; Lemaille, C.; Frederick, C.; Hunter, M.; Martens, B.; Lajoie, J.; Placide, M.; Rimoin, A. W.; Hoff, N. A.; Noyce, R.; Fowke, K. R.; Kimani, J.; Mckinnon, L.; Shaw, S. Y.; Stein, D. R.; Kindrachuk, J.

2026-03-24 infectious diseases
10.64898/2026.03.22.26349033 medRxiv
Show abstract

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted and bloodborne infection caused by Treponema pallidum spp. pallidum. Given the paucity of data on syphilis in Kenyan sex workers and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), we conducted a retrospective study of syphilis seropositivity in female sex workers (FSW) and GBMSM in Nairobi, Kenya. Seropositivity testing of cryopreserved plasma samples showed that 11.1% (72/647) were positive. Syphilis seropositivity was associated with HIV status, and FSWs were disproportionately represented in the seropositive group (66/72, 92%). Here, we report a higher seropositive rate than in previous studies in Kenya, and ongoing community and surveillance supports are important for addressing the ongoing public health impacts of syphilis.

Matching journals

The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.