Syphilis on the Rise in the Gay Community

Reuters News

Syphilis has risen sharply among gay and bisexual men in the United States this decade, driving up the country's rate for the disease and placing these men at higher risk for AIDS, federal health officials say….. Gay and bisexual men accounted for 7 percent of syphilis cases in 2000 but more than 60 percent in 2005, CDC experts estimated….. “The most devastating consequence of this increase in syphilis cases would be an increase in the rates of HIV infection,” said Dr. Khalil Ghanem of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.