Syphilis Rises in South Florida

Almost 6,000 cases of syphilis were reported nationwide last year, down 9.6 percent from 1999. While 80 percent of the nation's 3,135 counties reported no cases, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida each reported an increase. Miami-Dade ranked 10th in the country in 2000 with 126 cases, for a rate of 5.8 per 100,000 population, up from 82 cases in 1999. Palm Beach County ranked 20th, with 54 cases, or 5.1 per 100,000 people, up from 37 cases the previous year, the CDC reported.

The majority of cases were transmitted through heterosexual sex in poor and minority communities, but there also have been outbreaks among gay and bisexual men in several cities including Miami Beach, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City and Chicago, the CDC said. "We're concerned about the intersection of syphilis and HIV transmission," said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. In Palm Beach County, most of the increases were in male drug users ages 22 to 44, said Kim Honer, operations manager of the Palm Beach County STD Program. "The majority of our cases are poor black men, drug users, who become infected by prostitutes trading sex for drugs," Honer said.

Broward County had 36 cases, or 2.2 per 100,000, according to Linda Cooperman, STD program director for the county health department. "That may not appear to be significant, but it is," Cooperman said. Broward had only 13 cases in 1998 and 18 in 1999, she said. Cooperman said she is also uneasy about an increase in cases in the gay community. "What we're dealing with is a major behavioral change. Young gay males feel they're infallible and this can't happen to them."

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