Syphilis 'back with a vengeance' in China
Pastor Dale Morgan
Syphilis 'back with a vengeance' in China*
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday January 12, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
China is suffering its biggest wave of syphilis in more than 50 years as
a cocktail of changing sexual mores and weakening public healthcare
takes its toll on the world's most populous nation.
The incidence rate of the sexually transmitted - and occasionally fatal
- disease has surged more than 30-fold in less than 10 years, according
to a new study that will be published in the Lancet tomorrow.
Syphilis was almost wiped out in China between 1960 and 1980 thanks to a
huge public health campaign. It was one of the proudest boasts of the
Communist party after it took power in 1949 with a promise to wipe out
capitalist decadence and disease.
But it has surged back in the wake of economic and social reforms that
have undermined the health system and lead to a burgeoning sex industry.
Because the disease was absent for such a long time, immunities are low
but young people are more vulnerable because they are now losing their
virginity earlier, marrying later and having more partners than in the past.
"Syphilis has returned to China with a vengeance. The data demonstrates
a syphilis epidemic of such scope and magnitude that it will require
terrific effort to intervene," lead researcher Myron S Cohen, director
of the centre for infectious diseases at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, told the Reuters news agency.
The study by US and Chinese researchers found the total incidence of
syphilis rose to 6.5 cases per 100,000 people in 1999 from less than 0.2
cases per 100,000 in 1993. In two of the three categories of the
disease, incidence rates were more than double those of the US.
Syphilis can be treated with antibiotics but if no medication is taken
over a long period, it can fatally damage the nervous system. The World
Health Organisation said a major factor was the high cost of healthcare
in China, which means many people cannot afford to seek medical
treatment so remain contagious.
"Providing access to basic health care on the basis of need, not on
ability to pay, is the most effective way of dealing with the
re-emergence of syphilis in China," said Dr Henk Bekedam, the WHO
representative to China. He called on the government to promote condom
use and education about sexually transmitted diseases.
The rapid changes in society have been evident in a slew of recent
surveys. Yesterday, the Xinhua news agency reported that the average
marriage age for woman has increased to 24, up from 21.9 in 1990.
The same day, a study of high school students found that most found
nothing wrong with a one-night stand, while the average age at which
they had lost their virginity was 15. But condom use was low and sex
education is far behind the trends. The China Daily said underage girls
account for a quarter of the country's 1.5 million abortions each year.
Chinese academics said their country had stepped up its efforts to
counter syphilis and HIV-Aids in recent years, but more needed to be done.
"This is the direct result of more open attitudes about sex," said
Professor Ma Xiaonian, director of the sexual medicine department in
Yuquan hospital, affiliated to Tsinghua University. "We haven't done
enough in controlling sexually transmitted disease. There is still a lot
of work to do."