まいくの続『ナースの森』（森ないや、ここには。。）

投薬の効かない梅毒広まる(英語)

A strain of syphilis that has proven resistant to antibiotic pills could be spreading more quickly among gay and bisexual men who have sex with multiple partners, new research suggests.

According to a study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites), this mutant strain jumped in places like San Francisco, from 4 percent in 1999-2002 to 37 percent in 2003.

Researchers at University of Washington in Seattle say they have found increasing evidence of the resistant strain of syphilis in four cities: Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco and Dublin, Ireland. At least 10 percent of the syphilis samples taken from clinics in those cities were drug-resistant, with most cases occurring among men who have sex with men.

"That suggests that this mutation is pretty widely distributed geographically," said Sheila A. Lukehart, research professor of infectious diseases in a quote published by the Associated Press (AP).

Dr. Ken Haller, president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), described syphilis as a particularly "insidious" infection. "It spreads through sexual contact. You can also get syphilis in your throat if you engage in oral sex with someone who has it."

"In stage one of syphilis, men will get a chancre which is an ulcer on the head of the penis," Haller said. "But that disappears and people think whatever they had has gone away. Wrong." Dr. Haller said from that point syphilis attacks the brain, causing dementia, paralysis and death.

Doctors commonly treat syphilis by prescribing azithromycin, which is typically taken as four pills. But with this new resistant strain, azithromycin does not work, and experts recommend doctors switch to penicillin, which must be given in two injections to the buttocks. The shots are painful, since a large amount of the solution must be forced into the muscles.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) reported that syphilis decreased in the United States through the 1990s, then climbed 19 percent from 2000 to 2003 to about 7,100 cases.

The CDC attributed that increase to a 12-fold rise in cases among men who have sex with men.

Health officials believed the syphilis outbreaks meant gay and bisexual men had abandoned safe-sex practices, and would later be infected by HIV (news - web sites).

But on Thursday the AP reported that cities with large syphilis outbreaks -- like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Miami, Houston and Chicago -- did not see a corresponding HIV outbreak.

The CDC now believes only a small number of people were infected with syphilis and that in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, more than half of the men newly infected with syphilis already had HIV.

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