Number of syphilis cases hits all-time low

Stubborn pockets of infection remain, accompanied by warnings that more work needs to be done to eliminate this sexually transmitted disease.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 17, 2001.

As the numbers for primary and secondary syphilis declined nationally through the 1990s, public health officials in Davidson County, Tenn., knew they had a problem. The numbers in their heavily suburban and urban county, which includes the city of Nashville, were moving in the opposite direction.

"We were in an epidemic," said Brian Todd, spokesman for the Metropolitan Health Dept. of Nashville and Davidson County. "We had to start doing things differently."

In 1998, they launched the program, "STD Free," to bring community groups, schools, universities, health care organizations and places of worship together to figure out how to reduce the rate.

The health department set up a 24-hour screening and treatment program at the county jail. Public health officials sent educational materials to physicians and health care workers to raise awareness. They increased contact with area laboratories to ensure that all cases were reported.

"It wasn't a short-term fix," said Todd. "We see this initiative continuing. We want to eliminate syphilis from Nashville."

Now ranked seventh in the nation for syphilis with 200 cases in 2000, they have something to celebrate. Their syphilis rate declined 20% from 1999 when they were ranked fourth in the nation for this STD.

And they're not the only ones celebrating. According to figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, syphilis declined 9% nationally in 2000, for an all-time low of 5,979 cases. The decline is linked to the CDC's National Campaign to Eliminate Syphilis in the United States, launched in 1999, which makes funding available for increased education, surveillance and access to treatment. [...]