ANALYSIS – First it was the monkeypox virus, and now America may soon be facing a public health emergency due to the drastic surge in sexually transmitted syphilis cases, primarily spread through male-to-male sex (MSM).
If untreated, syphilis can spread to the brain and nervous system or to the eye, causing serious issues such as hearing loss, stroke and blindness.
And there's another big concern: Having syphilis can increase the risk for getting HIV or giving it to others.
But you can rest assured that Team Biden and the complicit media will do everything possible to divert attention from the primary cause of this looming epidemic – unprotected gay male sex.
This is especially true, since the point person on this is Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine. Formerly known as Richard, the transgender Biden executive leads the U.S. government's response.
He is recruiting experts to tackle the crisis, including officials at the CDC, and is considering declaring a public health emergency.
Already, the left has gotten ahead of the narrative by focusing on the dearth of antibiotics needed to fight the outbreak. And that is a concern.
The scarcity of penicillin to treat a surging number of syphilis cases is so dire that U.S. health officials warn the epidemic of sexually transmitted infection will worsen.
The shortage of Pfizer's penicillin G benzathine – the preferred treatment for primary and secondary syphilis – began in April.
Pfizer, the only company that makes prefilled syringes of penicillin for the United States, selling it under the brand name Bicillin L-A, says the treatment will be back in stock by the second quarter of 2024.
Doctors can turn to another antibiotic, doxycycline, but that's less convenient for patients. Doxycycline is a pill given twice daily for at least two weeks, whereas penicillin G benzathine can sometimes clear the disease entirely with one injection.
“This is a remarkable shortage,” said Joseph Cherabie, who specializes in sexual health care at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
But it ignores the root cause.
Since 2000, syphilis has been surging, reaching 53,767 primary and secondary (P&S) cases in 2021, an increase of nearly 800 per cent, data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show.
The highly contagious sexually transmitted disease has reportedly affected seven million individuals in total as of 2020, with ‘MSM' being the most significant cause.
According to a paper posted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institute of Health (NIH):
Syphilis is a treatable but highly contagious sexually transmitted disease (STI) that has a long history of infecting millions of people from diverse ethnicities and is mainly considered [spread by] promiscuity.
The paper adds: “According to the World Health Organization, seven million individuals got infected globally with syphilis in 2020, and unhygienic sexual practices amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) account for the highest incidence of infection.”
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes on its website that:
Even though gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) account for only 4% of the U.S. male population, they account for nearly half of reported P&S syphilis cases. Reported syphilis among MSM increased 7% from 2020 to 2021.
It adds another troubling factor, the relationship between Primary & Secondary Syphilis and HIV:
In the United States, almost half of MSM with P&S syphilis are also reported to have HIV. The troubling reality is that if you are a gay man who does not have HIV, but who is diagnosed with P&S syphilis, you are more likely to be infected with HIV in the future.
And then there are the innocents affected by this horrible disease due to the concurrent rise in congenital Syphilis. Rates of syphilis in babies are rising at an alarming rate in the United States.
Left untreated in babies, syphilis can lead to stillbirth. It can also damage a baby's organs, bones, vision and hearing. In 2021, more than 200 infants in the U.S. with congenital syphilis died.
As CNN reports: “Public health experts consider congenital syphilis to be a ‘never event' – something that should never happen – because nearly every case is preventable.”
However, over the past decade, CNN adds: “there's been about a 700% increase in the cases of congenital syphilis in the United States,” said Dr. Robert McDonald of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of STD Prevention, Surveillance and Data Management.
There is another aggravating factor though, the NLM paper notes: “A decrease in funds and investments for public health clinics during COVID-19 because the funds have been diverted for treating COVID-19 has resulted in a dramatic rise in syphilis.”
So, you can also blame the new epidemic partly on the country's overreaction to the other pandemic.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Vaccines “awake” disease?
There is only one sure prevention…abstinence!
Increasingly people are developing allergies to penicillin. I’ve always been allergic to it all my life. I don’t go into shock like some do, but I throw it up almost immediately.