NEW YORK, Oct 07 (Reuters Health) -- Rates of syphilis infection have hit such historic lows that federal health officials are now optimistic that the disease may be effectively eliminated from the US by the year 2005.
"At the close of this century, we have a brief window of opportunity to eliminate one of the public health threats we've been battling the longest," said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A CDC report issued Thursday finds that just 6,993 cases of syphilis were recorded in the US in 1998, a 19% decline from 1997 "and an 86% decrease from the 50,578 cases reported in 1990."
New cases of syphilis (syphilis incidence) generally follow cycles of peaks followed by steady declines. However, current declines have been steeper than ever before, pushing syphilis rates to what the CDC say are "record lows."
Incidence of the sexually transmitted illness remain clustered in major urban centers, including Baltimore, Chicago, Memphis, Nashville, Phoenix, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
Cases are also clustered in the South and Northeast, and among minority rather than white populations. In a CDC statement, Dr. Helene Gayle, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, pointed out that "syphilis remains one of the most glaring examples of racial inequities in health status facing this nation."
National syphilis prevention efforts, focused on 33 "target" states and cities, are currently underway. The agency's ultimate goal is the virtual elimination of syphilis from the United States. According to the CDC, this means that health officials must aim to reduce annual syphilis cases "to below 1000 and to increase the number of syphilis-free counties to 90% by 2005."
The report was published in the October 8th issue of the CDC journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
