Old-fashioned syphilis epidemic emerging
INCREASED testing for the sexually-transmitted infection syphilis is failing to rein in Australia’s emerging epidemic, a study shows.
Rates of the old-fashioned disease have jumped sharply in the past decade, with more gay men aged in their 20s and 30s becoming infected.
Specialists have speculated whether the rise is simply a reflection of more men being tested for the disease, but research released today suggests the infection rate itself is rising.
Epidemiologists at the MacFarlane Burnet Institute of Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne compared the city’s testing and infection rates to analyse the trend.
Between 2002 and 2003 alone, the chance of being tested for the disease during a GP consultation jumped 44 per cent. But the syphilis diagnosis rate increased by 500 per cent over the same period.
“The increase in infectious syphilis notifications appears unrelated to the observed increase in testing and is more likely to be attributed to increased transmission,” the authors wrote in the latest Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
In fact, increased testing does not seem to have calmed the increase at all, the specialists said.
“This suggests that testing and treatment alone may not be the only answer to a syphilis outbreak,” they wrote.
Experts are calling for new prevention strategies to reduce the rate among gay men.
Numbers of syphilis infections are still relatively low compared to chlamydia and gonorrhoea, with 815 new infections reported in 2006.
However, the rise from 618 reports in 2004 constitutes an emerging epidemic which could potentially climb to levels seen 30 years ago, experts fear.
Syphilis, once dubbed “cupid’s disease”, is caused by micro-organisms called spirochetes that open a painless lesion on the genitalia. It soon heals but is followed by a period of fever, sore throat, weight loss and headaches.
If left untreated long-term syphilis can cause chronic inflammation and even insanity.
By Tamara McLean
www.news.com.au
