Heroin and meth are driving record high syphilis rates in the US, report warns  

Heroin and meth are driving record high syphilis rates in the US, report warns: Drug use has more than doubled among those with the STI

  • The rate of highly-transmissible syphilis increased by 73 percent between 2013 and 2017, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report reveals 
  • Over the same period, the number of infected people using injection drugs more than doubled
  • The CDC warns that drug use may be fueling the sharp increase in cases of the STI seen in the US in recent years 

Injectable heroin and meth are driving up staggering rates of syphilis, which reached a record high in the US last year, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report issued Thursday. 

Drug abuse and STDs have both reached the point of becoming critical public health issues nationwide. 

Now, health officials warn that they don’t just coincide – they feed one another. 

Between 2013 and 2017, the rate of high-risk, transmissible syphilis in the US soared by 73 percent. 

In the same period, the number of people who had syphilis and reported using injection drugs – meth and heroin – more than doubled, according to the CDC report. 

Rates of heroin infection (pictured, file) and meth injection more than doubled among people with syphilis between 2013 and 2017, a new CDC report reveals 

The sexually transmitted disease remains most common among men who have sex with men, but the alarming increases among drug-users are pushing the overlapping groups to a top priority for US health officials. 

In 2017, over 101,500 people were newly infected with syphilis. 

Of those, 30,644 had primary and secondary syphilis, the earliest stage of the infection when it can most easily be passed on through sexual contact or contact with blood. 

That about nine one hundredths of a percent of The American population – a tiny fraction. 

Among the small number of people that do have highly-transmissible syphilis, injection drug use is far more common than in the general population. 

Nearly 17 percent of women with primary and secondary syphilis said they had used methamphetamine, 10 percent had used some form of injection drugs and 5.8 percent had used heroin in the past year. 

Among men who have sex with women, the rates were similar. 

Aside from sex itself needle sharing has long been a leading avenue for the transmission of HIV.  

Globally, over 13 million people inject drugs and 1.7 million of them have HIV. 

It is becoming increasingly clear that syphilis spreads in a similar way. 

The bacterial infection is most often passed from person to person through vaginal, anal or oral sex. 

In its early stages, syphilis causes sores to develop around the genitals and occasionally the mouth. 

It’s easy to treat with a course of antibiotics – typically penicillin – if the medication is started early enough. 

However, if syphilis is left untreated for too long, the infection can start to damage the brain and even cause paralysis or blindness. Babies can be born with syphilis if their mothers have the infection.  

Syphilis is not transmitted by skin contact – like sitting on a toilet skin – and is most often transmitted between men who have sex with men. 

But reusing a needle that a person with the infection has used can also transmit the bacteria from one person’s blood to another. 

In addition to its own potential complications, syphilis raises the risks of contracting HIV, too. 

So the CDC wants to make prevention efforts among drug users a high priority in public health efforts.  

‘STD programs should consider partnering with substance use disorder prevention and treatment programs and other organizations that provide services to persons who use drugs in the local community,’ the report authors wrote. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk