Syphilis cases rise 3% through August

• By Hou Chia-yu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

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Syphilis cases in Taiwan rose by 3 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, driven by a 4 percent increase among women and young adults, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a statement yesterday.

The CDC said that 78 percent of cases in the period were male, while 70 percent were aged 15 to 44.

Reported cases among women and people aged 15 to 24 were 1,538 and 1,340 respectively, both up 4 percent from the same period last year, it said.

A person shows a rash on their hand to a medical worker in Taichung in an undated photograph.

Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times

CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Min-cheng (林明誠) said there were 68 reported cases of congenital syphilis during the period, highlighting the need for measures to control the disease.

Infants can contract congenital syphilis if their mother was diagnosed with the disease while pregnant, but they must be monitored for up to 15 months before a definitive diagnosis can be made, Lin said.

The number of reported cases does not necessarily correspond to the number of diagnoses, she said, adding that some cases might be attributed to false-positive test results of mothers, with subsequent testing confirming that they did not have the disease.

If pregnant women diagnosed with syphilis do not seek timely treatment, it could lead to stillbirth, miscarriage or premature birth, she said.

Benzathine penicillin G is the only effective treatment for preventing mother-to-child transmission, she added.

Syphilis can be difficult to diagnose definitively, as it can be asymptomatic and can cause a variety of symptoms that might easily be mistaken for a common cold or other skin conditions, Lin said.

Symptoms can also temporarily subside without treatment, leading people to delay seeking medical care and assume that the infection has gone away, she said.

However, Treponema pallidum — the bacteria that causes the disease — can spread and remain transmissible in the body, potentially progressing to severe tertiary syphilis and allowing an unseen chain of transmission to persist, Lin said.

Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are vital to stopping the spread, she said.

If pregnant women test positive in an initial rapid plasma reagin or venereal disease screening during prenatal care, the same blood sample can be used for a T pallidum particle agglutination or T Pallidum hemagglutination assay confirmatory test, eliminating the need for a return visit and helping speed diagnosis, reporting and treatment, the CDC said.

Pregnant women with positive initial screening results should undergo confirmatory testing as soon as possible and, if diagnosed with syphilis, undergo appropriate treatment promptly, it said.

When reporting cases involving pregnant women, medical professionals should also record the pregnancy and gestational age to facilitate follow-up by public health authorities, it added.