2493 Syphilis is on the increase

Is there any way they can blame President Bush? It has happened on his watch. From 2001-2004 the rate increased to 2.7 cases per 100,000 population, up from 2.1 in 2000. The CDC say this is a result of more gay sex, and the rate is increasing particularly among blacks. For whatever reason, the medical world calls this MSM--"men having sex with men." Since most people think MSM means Main Stream Media, I think they should find a new acronym, or just stick with gay sex. Syphilis is actually going down among women, and often they are getting the disease from bi-sexual men. Bi-sexuals are called "non-gay-identified-MSM who have female partners," or NGI MSM in this article. No pun, but that's a mouthful. Perhaps the rate is going down among women because more men are not pretending to be straight and thus not leaving women with their little gifts.
The article also said physicians under report syphilis and even when it is reported there is a "challenge of locating sex partners about whom limited information is known." In the real world, we call that casual sex or extreme promiscuity. Also, according to the CDC, syphilis and AIDS are often linked and the internet is contributing to the problem. (JAMA, April 26, 2006, taken from MMWR 2006:55:269-273)

"Over the past several years, increases in syphilis among MSM have been reported in various cities and areas, including Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Southern California, Miami, and New York City. In the recent outbreaks, high rates of HIV co-infection were documented, ranging from 20 percent to 70 percent. While the health problems caused by syphilis in adults are serious in their own right, it is now known that the genital sores caused by syphilis in adults also make it easier to transmit and acquire HIV infection sexually." Triad Health Project

syphilis
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
gay sex
CDC