Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Friday, December 27, 2002
County health officials said a recent study showed that the number of syphilis cases jumped from about three dozen cases in 2000 to 507 in the first 11 months of 2002. The study said that 62% of the new cases were among gay and bisexual men, and that six in 10 of those cases were in men already infected with HIV.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Los Angeles County had the fourth-largest number of new cases in the United States this year. The CDC added that the new outbreaks in US cities among homosexual and bisexual men are setting back efforts to eradicate the disease.
Doctors with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the nation's largest AIDS organization, said the number of undiagnosed syphilis cases in Los Angeles probably outnumbers reported cases by 3 to 1.
Foundation president Michael Weinstein said county officials had to do more to alert the public. "They should be ringing an alarm bell, they should not be playing it down," he said.
Dr. Paul DenOuden, a foundation doctor, said, "There could be two reasons for so many cases being reported primarily among the HIV-infected. Either they are being exposed more often to syphilis, or routine syphilis screening at AIDS clinics simply catches a bigger percentage within this population."
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