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MYSTERY SHOPPERS

PHOENIX — State health officials are spending $100,000 to help educate pregnant women and their doctors to test for syphilis.

They're aiming the campaign mainly aiming at Hispanics, because 80 percent of Arizona cases of congenital syphilis, which is acquired during fetal development, are among Hispanics.

Alfonso Urquidi, who heads the agency's program on sexually transmitted diseases, said Arizona had the highest rate of congenital syphilis of any state from 2003 through 2005. And he said that while the state slipped to fifth last year, with 28 cases, it's still a very high rate for about 100,000 births each year.

Urquidi said infants who get the venereal disease from their pregnant mothers are at risk for everything from birth defects to stillbirths.

State law already requires doctors to test women when they come in for their first prenatal visit.

Urquidi said the problem is that the women and their doctors don't consider the possibility of subsequent infection. And he said that may be because, generally speaking, the women are not engaging in risky behavior.

"They don't have multiple partners," Urquidi said.

"These are usually women who stay at home," he explained. "So the likelihood is that their male partners have multiple partners."

Complicating matters is the fact a woman who is infected during pregnancy might not recognize it, he said.

Urquidi said the disease "incubates" for up to 90 days, often without symptoms other than a possible rash at the infection site. After that, a rash might break out on the hands, the feet or the trunk of the body.

Urquidi said focusing the educational campaign largely in Hispanic areas is not racial profiling.

"But we're going to be inclusive in our message, so that everyone hears the message about getting screened in the first and third trimesters," he said.

No state money will be made available for doing the actual tests. But Wil Humble, the state's assistant director of public health, said the test is very affordable, perhaps just $4.

"And it's pretty easy to treat with antibiotics," Humble said. "But if you don't get to the mom then, the baby has a decent chance of having really bad congenital malformations and birth defects."

Funding for the program was not approved by the Legislature. It was ordered by Gov. Janet Napolitano, who took the money out of the state's Health Crisis Fund, which gets up to $1 million each year from tobacco taxes.