Syphilis Makes a Comeback

Posted by Judy Arbique Aug 22, 2007

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that I learned about when I trained 30 years ago in medical laboratory technology. We studies the symptoms, diagnosis and laboratory identification in a more or less historical sense.

The majority of my knowledge of syphilis was what I learned in a supposed biography on Winston Churchill's mother. Allegedly Churchill's father suffered from syphilis.

Although for years syphilis seemed extinct based on the numbers of laboratory diagnosed infections, recently it appears to be making a comeback. Larger cities such as New York have reported more cases of syphilis since 2005.

Reportedly, 260 cases of syphilis were diagnosed in New York, City in the first quarter of 2007 - twice the number diagnosed during the first quarter of 2006.

Men who have sex with men have been associated with higher incidence of syphilis infection; however, in syphilis is now becoming more common in women.

One of the concerns with the spread of any sexually transmitted infection (STI) is the increase in spread of other STIs that are transmitted by the same behaviours. The greater the number of sexual exposures, the greater the risk of transmitting any sexually transmitted infection - Syphilis, HIV, Chlmaydia, Gonorrhoeae, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, etc.