BCAPOP's Member-Only Community of Practice: Syphilis Prevention through Awareness, Resources and Knowledge (SPARK) Training

This session will provide education about syphilis in pregnancy and congenital syphilis tailored to Pregnancy Outreach Program staff in BC. This will include information about syphilis prevention, testing, and treatment in pregnancy, strategies to approach conversations about syphilis, and answers to specific questions that pregnant women and people may have. I will present the Syphilis in Pregnancy Toolkit for Community and Outreach Programs and share how the toolkit can be used to navigate complex and uncomfortable topics using plain language and focusing the person at the centre of these conversations. Attendees will leave with knowledge and resources to support prevention, early detection, and timely treatment of syphilis in their communities.

Presenter: Emma Karlsen, Research Manager 

Emma Karlsen is the Research Manager for the Reproductive Infectious Diseases Program at the University of British Columbia and BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre. She oversees all the program’s research projects, including studies of HPV vaccination in women with HIV, maternal vaccination to prevent infant infection, and the vaginal microbiome. Since 2024, she has facilitated the ongoing REACT-Syph project which aims to reduce maternal and congenital syphilis in Canada, by supporting national public health data collection and co-leading the development of knowledge mobilization tools.