‘Hookup’ apps and sex parties causing surge in syphilis

CASES of syphilis have reached their highest level since 1949 following a rise in unsafe sex, as fears about HIV have faded, new figures suggest.

The official data show the number of diagnoses has doubled in five years, with most cases occurring in gay and bisexual men.

It follows warnings from health officials that risky sexual behaviour – including unprotected activity, “chem sex”, the use of “hookup” apps such as Grindr, and “poz” parties where HIV positive men select sexual partners – is fuelling the rise.

The figures from Public Health England show 5,920 syphilis diagnoses in 2016 – a rise of 12 per cent in one year and a near doubling from 3,001 cases in 2012. PHE said the cases were mostly associated with transmission in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men.

Syphilis can usually be treated with antibiotics, but if left untreated can cause serious long-term problems.

Last year officials warned of increasing outbreaks after a historical decline in the late Eighties and early Nineties, when the spectre of an HIV pandemic encouraged safer sex.

Since then, advances in treatment mean young people with HIV now have near-normal life expectancy, while game-changing preventive drugs reduce the chance of transmission by 90 per cent. But the rise in unprotected sex has left increasing numbers exposed to other sexually transmitted infections, experts warn.

Dr Michael Brady, the medical director at sexual health charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said rates of infections were “unacceptably high” and cuts to public health budgets were fuelling a “sexual health crisis”.

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