Syphilis Cases on the Increase in New York City

By SARAH KERSHAW

Published: August 12, 2007

It was a scourge of centuries past, a disease that ravaged the body and brain, drove geniuses to madness and slowly brought its victims to a terrible death.

But syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that was so rare by 1998 that federal health officials had planned to declare it eliminated by 2005, has made a troubling comeback in New York City and across the nation. In the first three months of this year, more than twice as many syphilis cases were diagnosed than were in the first quarter of 2006, according to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

In recent years, the disease has been most common in men who have sex with men. But now, health officials say they are concerned about an increase in cases among women in New York, following a trend seen nationally beginning in 2005. After a decade with almost no female cases, health officials said the jump among women was possibly fueled by an increase in the number of men having sex with both men and women.(...)

Syphilis is highly contagious and can be hard to detect, but is easily curable with antibiotics. Untreated in pregnant women, it can cause stillbirth, severe birth defects and infant death.(...)

Syphilis cases significantly declined with the advent of penicillin during World War II.

The disease can look and feel like so many other ailments that it is also known as “the great imitator.” In the final stage, as long as 30 years after initial infection, it can cause severe damage to many internal organs, depression, blindness and fits of creativity, and ultimately, death.

It can easily be spread through oral sex, unlike some other sexually transmitted diseases, and is passed through direct contact with a syphilis sore. Symptoms occur an average of 21 days after infection, according to federal health officials, but they can take as long as 90 days to appear.

The first sign is often a small, firm and round lesion at the point of the body where the disease was contracted. The lesion is painless and will heal without treatment, so many people are not aware they are infected.