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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Other than AIDS, syphilis is perhaps the most dreaded sexually transmitted disease. It is spread through both homosexual and heterosexual sex.
Fortunately, the disease can be easily cured in its early stages by the old standby antibiotic penicillin, which has yet to lose its ability to wipe out the bacterium that causes syphilis.
If not treated, however, syphilis can cause heart problems, brain disorders, blindness and eventually death. Many famous people from history have suffered from syphilis, and some -- including gangster Al Capone -- died of it.
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Syphilis was a major U.S. health problem in the middle of the last century and reached a high of 106,000 cases in 1947. Since then, the numbers have dropped -- except for an increase during the crack epidemic of the late 1980s and the current rise in cases.
In the late 1990s, health officials hoped they would be able to vanquish syphilis, largely by focusing on African-Americans, a high-risk group. But now, while black Americans remain at higher risk than other races, gay and bisexual men appear to be extremely vulnerable, according to federal health officials.
While the government doesn't collect statistics on the sexual orientation of syphilis patients, an estimated 40 percent of those infected in 2002 were gay or bisexual.
AIDS complicates matters. Scientists suspect that the presence of syphilis, which can cause genital sores and cankers, makes it easier to transmit the AIDS virus or get infected by it.
It's not entirely clear whether AIDS rates are on the rise, although some research suggests that they are. The problem is that it can take some time -- months or even years -- before people realize they're infected.
Syphilis can also hide unnoticed in the body from 10 to 90 days after infection, the CDC says.
Early symptoms can be minor, and blood tests for the disease are less common than they were 20 years ago, says Dr. David H. Martin, director of the Louisiana STD Research Center. "People have gotten used to the idea of relatively few syphilis cases."
More information
For more on syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) or the American Social Health Association (www.ashastd.org). Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
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