The curve of new cases of syphilis -a sexually transmitted disease that if not treated in time can leave sequelae- registered sustained growth in the last decade and, although had a marked decline in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, increased again in 2021while the population between 15 and 24 years concentrates almost 44% of the new reports.
The data comes from the 39th Epidemiological Bulletin of the Directorate of Response to HIV, STIs, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis of the Ministry of Health, released in the last hours.
The document reported that “since 2010, the incidence rate of syphilis at the national level has grown steadily, very markedly in the last five years, up to its peak of 56.1 people per 100,000 inhabitants for both sexes in 2019″.
“The projections of the records for 2022 allow us to assume that for next year the trend will be close to the pre-pandemic numbers”
In 2020 there was a pronounced drop with a rate of 23.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, but last year an increase began to be marked that brought the cases to 26.5 per 100,000 people.
“The projections of the records for 2022 allow us to assume that for the next year the trend will be closer to pre-pandemic numbers,” indicated the Bulletin.
Graciela Manzur, head of the Dermatology Division of the Hospital de Clínicas, told Télam that this disease “was on a sustained increase until 2019 and in 2020 there was a drop in all STIs (sexually transmitted infections)”, but this year in his office “there were 764 people with syphilis up to October, which represents a 20% of the patients attended”.
“What we think is that the great decrease in 2020 is more related to a lack of notification of the cases than to the fact that they have really decreased so much, although there could have been a decrease due to the isolation measures,” he explained.
what is syphilis
syphilis It is a disease caused by Treponema pallidumfor which there is a very simple treatment with almost no adverse effects: penicillin.
Manzur described that in dermatology they usually refer to this disease as the “eternal pretender”, since it is presented as “an erosion in the genital region, on the penis or a painless ulceration, which if it is in the cervix or in the genital area of the woman sometimes she does not realize”.
“It can also be in the oral area or generate dermatological lesions such as pink spots. When they appear on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, they guide us to the fact that it may be syphilis,” he described.
The specialist indicated that if it is treated early it can be easily cured with treatment; but if it happens to a later period it can leave sequelae.
Regarding the stagesthe infectious disease doctor Leda Guzzi said that the first symptoms (ulcerations on the external or internal genitalia, or on the cervix or anus) “since they are painless, they can go unnoticed by the patient”.
Syphilis is a disease caused by treponema pallidum, for which there is a very simple treatment with almost no adverse effects: penicillin.
“If it is not diagnosed at this stage, the organism usually resolves only that ulcer and in a period ranging from 45 days to 6 months it advances to the secondary phase where the bacterium already has widespread dissemination in the body,” the member of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI) described to Télam.
In this regard, he pointed out that at this stage most characteristic is a rash -a rash with red spots on the trunk and limbs-, and the most characteristic is the appearance on the palms and soles.
“There may also be fever, swollen glands, laboratory abnormalitiesand the person can feel very bad but there are people who have it very mildly,” he said.
Guzzi stated that “if at this stage the diagnosis is not madethe disease ends self-limiting and may over the years move to late stages in which you can generate dilation of the vessels (aneurysms), cardiac alterations or invasion of the central nervous system with the appearance of pictures of dementia”.
One of the main problems mentioned by the two specialists is the so-called Congenital syphilisproduct of the vertical transmission when it passes to the fetus through the mother, in the pregnancy, childbirth or lactation; and in this sense, they stressed the importance of asking all pregnant people to be tested for syphilis.
The epidemiological report of the Ministry reported that “during 2021, 696 cases of congenital syphilis were reported, a drop of 3% compared to 2020 when 716 had been registered”, therefore the The national rate of congenital syphilis stands at 1.3 per thousand live births.
“If this is not diagnosed in a timely manner It is a very dangerous disease and can cause anything from fetal death to congenital malformations in the bones, neurological disorders, in the senses”Guzzi explained.
For his part, Manzur pointed out that the symptoms in the newborn They are blisters, lesions with skin weakness, bloody rhinitis that persists, and pain when touching the bones.
According to the Bulletin, in 2021 syphilis values were observed particularly high in some jurisdictions such as La Pampa (with a rate of 162.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), San Luis (88.4) and Río Negro (46.9).
Refering to age distributionas in previous years, it is adolescents and young men and women who register the greatest number of cases.
The group from 15 to 24 years concentrates almost 44% of the reports, followed by those from 25 to 34 years, with 31.4%.
Other sexually transmitted diseases
The report also warns that the jyoung are the group with the highest incidence of infections of bacterial origin: gonorrhea, detected by purulent genital discharge, and chlamydia, unspecified discharge.
In the case of the gonorrhea the rate in 2021 was 6.4 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants; 41% of the reported cases are in young people between the ages of 15 and 24, followed by 29% between the ages of 25 and 34.
On the contrary, the notification of cases of unspecified secretions it grew in 2021 over 2020 by 8.3% and the rate stands at 11.1 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants.
“STIs constitute a major challenge for public health, have a direct impact on sexual and reproductive health with infertility, cancer, complications in pregnancy and infections in newborns”Manzur said.
According to the WHO, it is estimated that every day more than one million people contract sexually transmitted diseases and most are asymptomatic.
“STIs constitute an important challenge for public health, they have a direct impact on sexual and reproductive health with infertility, cancer, complications in pregnancy and infections in newborns”Grace Manzur
For the physician, this increase may be linked to changes in sexual behavior, less protection, more partners, drug use for sex, and less fear of acquiring HIV due to increasingly better treatments for the disease.
In the same sense, Guzzi pointed out that “many STIs are probably due to the loss of fear of the HIV virus and greater sexual exposure to multiple sources without the corresponding care.”
“Faced with this, health professionals must offer all the corresponding detection tests and the population must be aware that there are many sexually transmitted diseases that are growing,” he concluded.
