FYLDE coast residents are being urged to take precautions against a potentially-deadly sexual health timebomb.
The sexually transmitted infection (STI) syphilis – once thought to have been consigned to history – is on the rise again.
Scientists writing in the April edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases have called for doctors to be retrained in spottin
g the symptoms of syphilis.
The illness had all-but died out last century, but since the year 2000, there’s been a rapid increased in people catching it.
Cases of the potentially-fatal disease almost doubled in the North West in two years, according to statistics.
Figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) North West show that in 2003, 261 cases were reported, rising to 244 in 2004 and almost 500 in 2005.
There were 43 cases in total at Blackpool Victoria Hospital – the highest in the whole of Cumbria and Lancashire, which had 104.
Of those, only two were women and 38 gay men. Seventeen of those infected with syphilis were also suffering from HIV.
Dr Steven Gee, expert in communicable diseases as Lancashire HPA, called a ‘nasty’ disease.
He said: “Syphilis was not a problem for a long period of time, when it was under control.
“There were very few cases between 1996 and 2000, but around 2000 we started to get more cases in bigger cities.
“It’s a disease of four stages. Initial symptoms can include sores or ulcers. After about four to six weeks, you can get a rash. It can develop to flu-like symptoms.”
Latent syphilis can develop about 10 years after first infection, causing damage to heart, brain, eyes, internal organs and nervous system and can be fatal.
Many people with syphilis may have no obvious symptoms.
Lorraine Lighton, from the HPA North West, said the HPA had been reminding doctors and dentists of the symptoms.
She said: “Syphilis was so rare when most doctors were at medical school, it is not likely to be the first thing to spring to mind when a GP is with a patient who has early symptoms, which might be no more than skin rash.”
Dr Gee added: “Syphilis was known as the ‘great imitator’ because it can look like other diseases.
“The message is that syphilis is back and the best way to prevent it is safe sex.”
The full article contains 396 words and appears in Blackpool Gazette newspaper.
