Drug treatments designed to suppress HIV could be driving up rates of syphilis, a new study has warned. Although, efforts to reduce HIV have prompted the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) which can control viral load – making it virtually undetectable – and preventing or delaying the progression to AIDS, the new research claims that the absence of the fear factor may have prompted higher rates of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) as a result of risky, unprotected sex.
This, the researchers said, could be an explanation for the rapidly rising rates of syphilis in gay and bisexual men in the last three years.
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Syphilis, which is caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum, is a highly contagious disease spread primarily by sexual activity, including oral and anal sex. Among gay/bisexual men, syphilis rates are 107 times higher than among straight men. In 2015, 81.7 per cent of the reported male syphilis cases were from men whom had had sex with other men.
But researchers said it’s not clear why rates of syphilis among gay/ bisexual men are much higher than chlamydia or gonorrhoea rates.
This is because HAART boosts immune system activity, and therefore is expected to lower susceptibility to infection.
The ‘mailonline’ reported that the scientists reviewed the impact of HAART on behavioural and immune system changes. Similarly, they created two risk ‘models’ to test the likelihood of syphilis infection.
The lower risk model compared someone on HAART with no treatment in an HIV-positive partner, and the higher risk model compared existing syphilis infection with a non-infected partner who was either HIV negative or positive.
By: Appolonia Adeyemi
New Telegraph News
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