Internet Dating: A Syphilis Boom in the Western World!

Syphilis is a gift bacterium from the American Natives: we gave them smallpox (which almost exterminated them), they gave us syphilis bacterium. Syphilis was the sexual scourge of the 19th century. Many famous people died of it, from poet Charles Baudelaire to composer Robert Schumann, or painter Paul Gauguin (in the end, those French amoreaux...). But, the general use of antibiotics in the 1950s seemed to had cleared the Western world of this. But this is not the case anymore.

"Syphilis used to be a very rare disease. I'm not sure we can say that anymore", said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases, at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

As the majority of new syphilis cases are in men, it appears that risky gay behavior could be the main cause, and even the cases of heterosexual men and women, as well. In UK, syphilis cases have boomed by 10 times in 10 years, to 3,702 in 2006. In men, the rate increased from 1:100,000 in 1997 to 9:100,000 in 2006. In Germany, in men the syphilis rate grew from less than 2:100,000 in 1991 to 6:100,000 in 2003.

428 new French cases were diagnosed in 2003, 16 times more than in 2,000. In the Netherlands, the number of cases doubled from 2000 to 2004. In Amsterdam, the syphilis rate in men was 31:100,000.

The same tendency was signaled in the US: if in 2000 the infection was almost gone, in 2006, 9,800 new cases were signaled.

Now, most patients are urban gay men, but the infection can outbreak in the heterosexual population, if not tackled. In 2005, an increasing number of British heterosexual men and women got syphilis.

"These increases may lead to increases in diagnoses of congenital syphilis over the coming years", said Kate Swan, a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.

Syphilis causes ulcers, sores and rashes, and in advanced stages - dementia, heart attack or respiratory issues. About 50 % of the babies get syphilis while in the womb and die just before or after birth. In advanced stages, syphilis cannot be treated. And when there are more than a few isolated cases, the epidemics is difficult to control. Paradoxically, advances achieved in coping with AIDS seem to have boosted syphilis occurrence.

"The evidence points to an increase in unsafe sexual behavior since anti-retrovirals for AIDS came along in 1996", said van de Laar.

People have got enough of condom use, a "safe sex fatigue", van de Laar said.

Internet dating may have contributed to the spread of syphilis.

"Networks of HIV-positive men to find other positive men have sprung up on the Internet", said Jonathan Elford, an AIDS epidemiologist at London's City University.

"Some men who have the AIDS virus are seeking condom-free sex with other men who are also HIV-infected. However, they aren't protected against syphilis and other sexually spread diseases. Among gay men who have syphilis in Britain, nearly half have HIV", said Elford.