Journal of the International AIDS Society Blog

Re-emergence of Syphilis Epidemic Among HIV Positive Men: Behavioural or Biological?

Since the late nineteen nineties, syphilis has remerged as a significant epidemic disproportionately affecting HIV-positive gay men. Is the re-emergence of the epidemic in this community due to behavioral or biological reasons?

This is the question that Jin and colleagues explore in their paper entitled, “High incidence of syphilis in HIV-positive homosexual men: data from two community-based cohort studies”, which was recently published in Sexual Health. In their paper, the researchers report incidence and risk factors for syphilis among two different cohorts of HIV-positive and negative homosexual men in Sydney, Australia. The authors conclude that syphilis incidence was almost ten times higher for HIV-positive than HIV-negative homosexual men and that unprotected anal intercourse with HIV-positive partners was a major factor in the transmission of syphilis.

Source:

Jin Fengyi, Prestage Garrett P, Zablotska Iryna, Rawstorne Patrick, Imrie John, Kippax Susan C, Donovan Basil, Templeton David J, Kaldor John M, Grulich Andrew E: High incidence of syphilis in HIV-positive homosexual men: data from two community-based cohort studies. Sexual Health 2009, 6(4):281–284.

Posted by Edith Gruslin at 15:37    Comments (0)