On the heels of a rise in local syphilis cases, the Hamilton AIDS network has launched an awareness campaign to help beat back an STI that is often linked to HIV transmission.

This increase is particularly acute among men who have sex with men, as HIV becomes seen as less of a death sentence and more of a chronic disease, and safe sex practices decline in turn.

A report presented to the city’s board of health in 2013 raised concerns about a jump in new syphilis infections over the previous two years.

About 28 cases of syphilis were recorded in 2012, up about 60 per cent over the year before. The city also recorded 60 new cases in 2013. To date in 2014 there are 36 cases.

The report notes that more than three quarters of the infections in Hamilton since 2011 were among men who have sex with men.

That’s why men who have sex with men should consider being tested and ensure they’re practicing safe sex, said Tim McClemont, the board president of the AIDS Network of Hamilton, Halton, Haldimand, Norfolk and Brant.

“We have noticed that syphilis rates have been rising in recent years,” McClemont said. “But there’s also a two to five-fold greater chance of acquiring HIV when you have sores and skin breakdown in mucous membranes.”

Underlying issues

Syphilis itself is highly treatable. A single dose of antibiotics is enough to cure a newly infected person, but this resurgence still poses serious concerns. Babies born to infected mothers sometimes have birth defects and can go on to develop severe complications, including digestive and neurological problems.

Adults who contract syphilis but don’t seek treatment over many years also risk developing cardiovascular problems, large lesions all over the body, as well as neurological problems.

A person can contract syphilis through oral, anal or vaginal sex with an infected person. Signs of the disease include a rash, hair loss, achy joints and muscles, and sores at the site of infection.

So what exactly is causing infection rates to rise? “It’s hard to say,” McClemont said. “In general, people across the board perhaps have a lesser adherence to practicing safer sex.”

People may also be less inclined to use condoms because the spectre of contracting HIV – which was once seen as a death sentence – is now viewed more as a “chronic illness,” he said.

Young men may also not view STIs as dangerously as people who lived through the AIDS crisis of the 90s, he said. “It could just be, ‘that only happens to older guys and not me.’”

Not just a Hamilton problem

The trend in Hamilton is consistent with what officials are observing in cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, said Ashleigh Tuite, a University of Toronto public health researcher who specializes in sexually transmitted infections.

In the last decade, she said, “rates were increasing, then they plateaued and then they started rising again.”

In Toronto, she said, the increase occurred largely among homosexual men who were already infected with HIV.

Tuite attributed the correlation in part to a phenomenon called “sero-sorting” — when people with HIV seek out sexual partners who are also infected with the virus.

As part of the campaign, Hamilton Public Health and the AIDS network are pushing condom use and getting tested for STIs regularly. “It’s a layering of messaging and outreach,” McClemont said.

“That’s why we brought this forward.”

Testing for STIs is available at family doctors, walk in clinics and sexual health clinics. Treatment for syphilis is free.