Today, syphilis can seem like a historical relic, more likely to appear in period movies than in one’s next-door neighbor. But after more than a decade of increases in syphilis cases, the United States is looking at its highest rate in recent memory.
According to a report released on November 17 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, syphilis rates rose for both genders in every region of the U.S. in 2014. The rate of reported primary and secondary syphilis (the earliest symptomatic stages of the disease) increased by 15.1 percent from 2013 to 2014, to 6.3 cases per 100,000 people. The rate of reported congenital syphilis (passed by an infected mother to her child during pregnancy) increased by 27.5 percent, to 11.6 cases per 100,000 live births. [...]
The new wave of syphilis shows no signs of slowing down. In New Orleans, the number of syphilis cases tripled between 2012 and 2014. Central New York, which two years ago reported 27 syphilis cases, most recently reported 110, and some health clinics are now offering free syphilis testing. Health officials in Oregon, where syphilis rates have increased by more than 1,000 percent from 2007 to 2014, have created a new website, syphaware.org. The site's homepage reads, “Oregon is known for many things: natural beauty, coffee, beer, and Pinot Noir. Did you know that Oregon is also known for syphilis?”
Researchers are still trying to work out why these increases are happening now, but the CDC’s report offers a few clues. For one, syphilis isn’t the only sexually transmitted disease becoming more common. Syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea—the three STDs that comprised the focus of the report—rose simultaneously for the first time on record, which suggests an underlying cause that isn’t syphilis-specific.
No comments:
Post a Comment