Disease in the News Paper
Phillip Moore
HCS/330
3/4/2015
Dr. Talbert

Disease in the News Paper Syphilis represents a sexually transmitted disease with a long history of infection, disability and death. The disease starts with a simple chancre and morphs into a contagion that attacks the nervous system. The history of the disease covers continents and spans oceans. Today, the disease exist as a medical footnote and as an unfortunate experiment best forgotten. However, the disease refuses to go away. This paper will examine the return of the disease and the demographic the disease attacks. First, let us learn a little bit about the history of the disease.
Syphilis usually transmits sexually through small abrasions found within the mucosal membranes or through the layers of the skin. Syphilis enters the system and flows through the bloodstream to spread throughout the body. People carrying the lesions associated with the onset of syphilis usually transmit the disease (Ho, E. and Lukehart S., 2011). The chances that an exposed person may contract Syphilis is about 30% (Ho E. and Lukehart S., 2011). However the range may extend between 10% - 80%).
Before the discovery of penicillin, the cure for syphilis did not exist. Patients with the disease suffered through the various stages of the disease until they died. One famous syphilis victim was the notorious gangster Al Capone. The discovery of penicillin changed the fatal outcome of the syphilis disease. However, one of the most egregious breaches of medical ethics occurred as part of syphilis research. The Tuskegee experiment represents that breach of medical ethics.
The study of black men, from the Tuskegee area, infected with syphilis and studied without treatment provided America with the worst scandal in United States medicine. The study spanned approximately forty years. It happened between 1932 and 1972. The United States Public Health Service (USPHS) initiated a study in Macon County, Alabama. The study examined the effects of syphilis on 400 black men. The men never knew they were part of an experiment, nor were the men treated for syphilis (Brandt A., 1978). At the beginning of the experiment, syphilis remained incurable. During the course of the experiment, penicillin arrives as a cure. The USPHS intentionally denied the cure to the men. Finally, after forty years, the Tuskegee experiment received national attention which caused an uproar and eventually signaled an end to the experiment. The majority of the men died from the disease, several sired children with congenital syphilis (Brandt A., 1978). The results of the Tuskegee experiment exemplified the infamous history of syphilis. After the Tuskegee experiment, syphilis faded from the consciousness of the country. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) replaced syphilis in the minds of the American public.
For some reason these two diseases appear fated to share a connection. From the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there existed a high rate of HIV coinfection among syphilis patients (Ho E. and Lukehart S., 2011). The CDC reported, in 2002, that 25% of primary and secondary syphilis cases occurred in persons infected with HIV, and syphilis rates in HIV infected persons occurred 77 times greater than in the general population (Ho E. and Lukehart S., 2011). Those stats alone represent an alarming trend. Especially when the syphilis disease appeared all but eradicated.
The article examined for this paper appeared in WebMD. The article heralded the return of syphilis and the victims of the return are gay men. Cases of syphilis increased from 2.1 per 100,000 in 2000 to 5.3 per 100,000 between 2005-2013 (Reinberg, S., 2014). In gay males and other men who have sex with men the numbers doubled. An alarming trend, especially for on particular demographic.
In 2013, there were 16,000 cases of syphilis and 91% of those cases occurred within gay and bi-sexual men (Reinberg, 2014). The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported not seeing syphilis numbers this high in decades. The incubation period for syphilis makes researching the disparity of syphilis cases hard to track. The writer of the article suggest that gay and bi-sexual men receive testing at least once a year.
The author of the article, Steven Reinberg, reports on health issues facing men. He used statistics from the CDC in his article to support his contention that syphilis rates have risen dramatically. The CDC statistics also support premise that the disease affects a disproportionate amount of gay and bi-sexual males. In analyzing the article, I did not detect a bias from the author. He proposed some options for gay and bi-sexual men to get testing to prevent further infection and to curb the rise of a once dormant disease.
Syphilis has a long history of delivering pain, suffering and death to its victims. From the early years without a cure to the unconscionable Tuskegee experiment, syphilis has proven a difficult foe to fight. Now the disease appears poised to make a comeback within a demographic already fighting HIV and AIDS. The article is a wakeup call for all men to remain vigilant against the ever present syphilis disease.

References
Ho, E. L., & Lukehart, S. A. (2011, December). Syphilis: using modern approaches to understand an old disease. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 121(12),
Retrieved from http://http:www.jci.org
Reinberg, S. (2014, May). Syphilis Cases Climbing among Gay Men. WebMD, (), . Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20140509/syphilis- cases-climbing-among-gay-men-cdc Brandt, A. (1978, December). Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study .
NavyMedicine (),.doi:http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Documents/Healthcare%20Ethic Racism-And-Research.pdf