Houston targets syphilis increase

Reported August 29, 2007

To deal with a syphilis outbreak, the city Department of Health and Human Services is offering extended hours at two of its clinics that specialize in sexually transmitted diseases. The new hours start Saturday, and city residents can be diagnosed and receive treatment for free.

• Medical Center Clinic, 1115 S. Braeswood

Extended hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday

Regular hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• Lyons Avenue Health Clinic, 5602 Lyons

Extended hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday

Regular hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday Closed Saturday

• Additional screening

Free screening and treatment also will be provided in September at Legacy Community Health Services, 215 Westheimer, open weekdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

City of Houston

Facing a syphilis outbreak, the city of Houston's health department is preparing to launch a monthlong campaign to raise awareness of the sexually transmitted disease.

The number of syphilis cases reported in the Houston area has increased steadily over the past six years, much as it has nationwide, health officials say.

After a nearly 50 percent jump last year in the number of new cases over the previous year, bringing the 2006 total to 377, the count of new infections is increasing this year at an even more alarming rate.

From January through June, 230 cases had been reported in Houston and Harris County, according to the city Department of Health and Human Services.

"We're on target to more than double our number of cases from last year to this year," said Marlene McNeese-Ward, the department's chief of HIV/STD and Viral Hepatitis Prevention.

Officials are planning an advertising campaign to begin Saturday, including a canvas-sing effort in certain neighborhoods where the most cases have been reported, McNeese-Ward said.

"We're really looking at Acres Homes especially, and Sunnyside," she said, referring to neighborhoods on Houston's north and south sides, respectively. "But there's not too many ZIP codes ... where we're not seeing any (cases)."

Health officials also plan to deploy the department's mobile unit, where patients can be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, to those neighborhoods and other areas, such as Montrose, where high numbers of cases have been reported.

In addition, two city clinics that specialize in treating sexually transmitted diseases — and offer free diagnosis and treatment — plan to extend their hours during September.

Much of the increase, in this area and nationally, is among gay males, according to the city health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Houston, most new cases have shifted in recent years, from Anglo men who have sex with men, to Hispanic and African-American men who have sex with men.

Unprotected sex
Officials have noted an increase in the number of men who claim to be engaging in unprotected sex for drugs or money, McNeese-Ward said.

"We're also seeing a rise in our young men of color who are having sex with other men," she said.

The CDC attributes the increase in syphilis cases to decreased use of condoms, substance abuse, the use of the Internet to find sex partners and the availability of HIV/AIDS treatments, which may increase risky behavior.

The disease spreads through direct contact with a syphilis sore during sexual intercourse, oral sex or other contact.

In its early stages, when syphilis is most contagious, the infection can cause painless sores in the genital area or mouth. It can be cured easily with antibiotics at that point, but the sores usually disappear even without treatment, so some people don't realize they have it.

"The problem is, if you have it and you're not getting treated and you don't know you have it, and you're having unprotected intercourse ... you're transmitting it," said Dr. Mohit Khera, assistant professor of urology at Baylor College of Medicine.

After disappearing, the sores may be replaced by a rash on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet.

Over years, the disease can lead to serious complications, including organ damage, and can result in death, according to the CDC.

Those complications are what killed gangster Al Capone in the late 1940s.

Men are six times more likely to contract the disease than women, the CDC reports.

The disease also can be passed from mother to child during birth. Congenital syphilis, which also is increasing in Houston, can cause physical deformities, neurological complications and even stillbirth, according to the CDC.

Syphilis, which often afflicts people infected with other sexually transmitted diseases, is still far less common than gonorrhea, chlamydia and HIV. In the Houston area, 11,687 cases of chlamydia, 6,113 cases of gonorrhea and 1,190 cases of HIV were reported last year, the health department reported.

The number of syphilis cases diagnosed nationwide has increased every year since an all-time low in 2000, according to the CDC. About 8,700 primary and secondary cases were reported across the country in 2005, up 11 percent from the previous year.

The city, too, tallies only primary and secondary new cases in its official count.

Legacy Community Health Services in Montrose, which has a large gay male client base, has been working to educate the community about syphilis since 2001, when the increase first began, said spokesman Eric Roland.cq The clinic is working with the city in the new initiative.

"We've really been able to educate the community about those symptoms, and they're coming into the clinic earlier,'' Roland said.