As North Carolina battles H1N1, syphilis cases rising

RALEIGH, N.C.

Health departments in North Carolina already burdened with the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus have an additional worry — a dramatic increase in the number of cases of syphilis.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Sunday that cases of syphilis in the state have nearly doubled in the past year: 684 in the first nine months, compared to 359 cases for the same period a year earlier.

Numbers are up across almost all age and racial groups, including teenage girls and blacks — groups already disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted diseases.

"I have to be honest: This is pretty bad," said Evelyn Foust, director of the communicable diseases branch of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. "We are in the middle of a really serious syphilis outbreak, and we're very, very, very concerned about it."

The trend mirrors national statistics, which show syphilis and other STD rates rising across the country.

Syphilis had largely been contained in North Carolina, which reported thousands of cases annually throughout the 1990s. Helping to stem the problem was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded a syphilis elimination plan that targeted 28 counties nationwide, including five in North Carolina.

The extra resources helped spark a decline in the number of cases in North Carolina after 2000. But as the state's numbers got better, the CDC moved more than $1.3 million in funding for syphilis programs from North Carolina to other states, Foust said.

"We are back having this problem again because of a lack of commitment and investment," Foust said.

The state received less than $600,000 in 2008. Although the state's own budget provides some money for HIV/STD programs, nothing is specific to syphilis.

In a written statement, CDC spokesman Scott Bryan said officials tried to redistribute the money more equitably. He added that funding for syphilis elimination programs nationwide has remained flat for years.

Left untreated, syphilis can worsen even as symptoms disappear. It's one of the few STDs that can lead to death. Because people with skin sores characteristic of syphilis increase their risk of contracting HIV from an infected person, state health officials worry that HIV cases will increase soon, too.