This is the findings of a new study published in the journal ‘Nature Microbiology’. Although, Syphilis was once a death sentence, the vast majority of syphilis cases today are curable with penicillin injections.
However, a new study has revealed an aggressive new strain of the infection is more widespread than previously thought – and there are limited ways to control it.
Syphilis is a highly contagious disease spread primarily by sexual activity, including oral and anal sex. Occasionally, the disease can be passed to another person through prolonged kissing or close bodily contact. Although this disease is spread from sores, the vast majority of those sores go unrecognised.
The infected person is often unaware of the disease and unknowingly passes it on to his or her sexual partner. Pregnant women with the disease can spread it to their baby. This disease, called congenital syphilis, can cause abnormalities or even death to the child. Similarly, Syphilis cannot be spread by toilet seats, door knobs, swimming pools, hot tubs, bath tubs, shared clothing, or eating utensils.
Estimates suggest that there were 10.6 million cases worldwide in 2008, with many carrying the disease unaware they are actually infected. Cases of syphilis are common among both heterosexuals and men who have sex with men – but the latter group has been more affected.
There are two common types of syphilis: Nichols and Street Strain 14 (SS14). In an analysis of syphilis samples, researchers by the University of Zurich in Switzerland, found the most common to be SS14-Ω, a subset of SS14.
Alarmingly, 90 per cent of the SS14-Ω samples they analysed were resistant to antibiotics. It was reported that although, scientists have yet to detect any penicillin- resistant strains, the discovery is an ominous sign that it is adapting to modern medicine.
Cases of the chronic bacterial infection have shot up by 71 per cent in England since 2011, according to the latest figures. Syphilis cases are also increasingly more common in the United States, with infections rising 15 per cent between 2013 and 14; and another 19 per cent from 2014 to 2015, according to data issued by the U.S. Centre for Disease Control, CDC. Data obtained from other sources indicate that the disease is also rising in countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
Scientists are unsure just how many of these cases can be put down to the relatively new strain that is growing resistant to key antibiotics. But they said the emergence of a drug-resistant forms could make syphilis, a potentially fatal sexually transmitted infection, STI, even harder to treat.
A study of syphilis infections in 13 countries in 2012 to 2013 shows how a drug resistant strain of the disease is far more widespread than previously thought. SS14-Ω is particularly resistant to the class of antibiotics called macrolides, the researchers from the University of Zurich said.
The possibility that the second-line medication for the disease – used when penicillin injections are not appropriate – might lose their effectiveness has alarmed experts.
Reacting to the development, Lola Stamm, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina in the United States, said the findings should serve as a warning to doctors not to oversubscribe antibiotics. “Physicians need to be extremely wary about using macrolide drugs to treat syphilis,” she said.
