An ongoing outbreak of heterosexually-acquired syphilis across Teesside, UK

Abstract

Prior to 2006, diagnoses of heterosexually acquired syphilis were rare in Teesside (an area in the north east of England, UK). Since 2006, there has been an increase in such cases, with 24 cases diagnosed in 2006 and 22 in 2007. There was a marked reduction in cases in 2008 with six cases reported, but a large increase in diagnoses in 2009 (34 cases). There have been 14 cases to date in 2010. Of concern is the increase noted in women and younger age groups. Geographical mapping of cases shows a wide dispersion across Teesside although some clusters were identified, mostly in areas of high deprivation. Little detailed information is available to help identify social and sexual networks widely and target intervention. A multiagency outbreak control team is addressing this problem, based on the principles of partner notification, increased awareness, increased screening and health promotion activities. A range of measures, including a detailed communications plan, have been implemented.

Inequalities in the incidence of infectious disease in the North East of England: a population-based study

“…STI represent a clear target for reducing infectious disease inequalities in the North East of England and form a substantial burden (particularly chlamydia and genital warts). Our findings are largely consistent with evidence from other settings for chlamydia [45, 46], genital herpes [45], genital warts [45], gonorrhoea [45, 47, 48] and syphilis [49]. Although the complexity of risk for STI is great, the breakdown in social networks within communities (and the associated loss of social capital) can result in a reduction in trust, support and adherence to social norms.…”

Spatial methods for infectious disease outbreak investigations: systematic literature review

“…Although the simple dot map was the most commonly used method, a wide range of techniques were applied, including more sophisticated data visualisations and analytic tools. Across the range of studies, there were examples of spatial tools being usefully applied throughout the course of an outbreak investigation; from initial confirmation of the outbreak to describing and analysing [11,18-28,30-36,38,40-50,55,56,58-60, 63,67-69,71-76,80,82-85,87-93,96-105] Thematic map 25 [18,19,[21][22][23]28,29,38,41,42,45,46,50,60,68,70,74,80,82,89,91,[93][94][95]103] Rate map 14 [20,30,44,45,49,50,57,63,70,76,79,81,90,101] Smoothed incidence map 13 [11,31,[48][49][50]73,…”

“…Measures that aimed to control outbreaks included cleaning implicated cooling towers [40], issuing water boiling orders to areas served by contaminated supplies [41,42], vaccination catch-up campaigns [28], removal of breeding sites for mosquito larvae [43] and targeted information campaigns [36]. For example, Acheson and colleagues placed postcode-targeted information on social networks during an outbreak of heterosexually acquired syphilis in Teesside, UK [44].…”

Syphilis characteristics in Belgrade population, in period from 2009 to 2018

“…Faktori koji doprinose nastanku infekcija među ovom populacijom su promiskuitetno ponašanje, upotreba društvenih mreža i mobilnih aplikacija za brzo pronalaženje seksualnih partnera, zloupotreba droga, alkohola i psihoaktivnih supstanci, upotreba pre ekspozicione profilakse za HIV i posledično nebezbedno seksualno ponašanje, naročito nekorišćenje kondoma tokom oralnog seksa (9-12). Zabeležene su i epidemije sifilisa među heteroseksualnom populacijom, posebno kod žena u reproduktivnom periodu sa pojavom kongenitalnog sifilisa, a faktori rizika bili su seks pod uticajem alkohola i psihoaktivnih supstanci, seks za novac ili drogu i seks sa partnerima koji su pod povećanim rizikom za polno prenosive infekcije (13)(14)(15).…”