Compiled and edited by Martin Flynn
Syphilis in Dublin "drives new wave of HIV"
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More than one in 12 HIV positive men attending clinics in Dublin, Ireland
last year were found to have syphilis. So did one in 16 gay men tested
in a pioneering project that takes syphilis tests around the gay bars,
clubs and saunas. And one in eight of the men who got syphilis were also
found to have picked up HIV at the same time.
These startling findings, presented at the 9th Retrovirus
confirmed that a major epidemic of sexually-transmitted infections among
gay men is underway in Dublin, and may be driving a new wave of HIV infections,
too.
Study author Dr Susan Hopkins told Positive Nation: "Basically this
means that 12 per cent of our men acquiring syphilis are acquiring HIV
at the same time."
Of the cases of syphilis diagnosed at the clinics, most - 92 per cent
- were in gay men. Just under one in seven of those were already known
to be HIV positive, providing evidence of continued unprotected sex.
Another 15 men - one in 12 of all the male patients - turned out to have
undiagnosed HIV infections, most of them probably recent.
Furthermore, the HIV positive men were far more likely - nearly six times
more likely - to have gonorrhoea as well. Infections Infections like gonorrhoea
make people much
more infectious if they have HIV - and much more vulnerable to HIV if they don't have it already.
