The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District will put a newly approved $150,000 grant for syphilis education toward efforts to slow the spread of the disease among young people.
The grant approved earlier this month is part of the Community Engagement to Strengthen Local Health Department Approaches to Decreasing Syphilis Project through the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
The local health district answered a national call for proposals for the competitive award a few months ago, district Director LaShonda Malrey-Horne said. Waco received grants alongside five other similarly sized local departments across the country to take part in a nine-month implementation project. The departments will work together and share best practices on ways they have found effective to fight syphilis, she said.
The grant will allow the health district to perform an intervention targeting mostly for young people between 20 and 35 years old, the group most often affected by syphilis. Malrey-Horne said the department will go directly to places where it might find its target demographic to increase education and access to testing and treatment, and increase its capacity to provide services.
People are also reading…
“It’s really important for our community to understand and recognize that the prevention of STIs is one of the things that the public health district does that’s very unique to public health … kind of a core public health function,” Malrey-Horne said.
Malrey-Horne said McLennan County saw a 64% increase in syphilis infections between 2020 and 2022. However, the rise was not unique to the county, as the pandemic exacerbated the increase in syphilis rates in many areas, she said.
Clients who have tested positive are generally referred to follow-up appointments, but Malrey-Horne said disease intervention specialists, who notify sexual partners of those who have tested positive and refer them for testing and treatment, were disrupted. Clients are asked to disclose the names of people who they have been in contact with and could be at risk of syphilis, but throughout the pandemic it became more difficult to get in contact with patients for follow-up and testing.
Primary and secondary syphilis cases in Texas rose from 2,708 in 2020 to 3,865 cases in 2021, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported there were 50 cases of syphilis in McLennan County in 2020. For comparison, in 2003 the Tribune-Herald reported the health district was fighting an outbreak after it discovered 23 infectious cases by May of that year. There were only 11 reported cases in 2002.
The sexually transmitted disease is caused by bacterial infection that can cause significant health issues if left untreated, Malrey-Horne said. It is spread through direct person-to-person contact and is especially prevalent among men who have sex with men.
Syphilis is curable with antibiotic treatment, generally a few rounds of penicillin injection.
The CDC says the primary stage of syphilis can begin with a round, typically hard and painless sore at the location where syphilis entered the body. The sore, called a chancre, may heal on its own after three to six weeks, but without treatment the infection will progress to the secondary stage.
The secondary stage of syphilis can be characterized by a rash or sores in the mouth or genitals and a rough, reddish rash that does not itch on the palms and bottom of the feet. Other symptoms may be similar to a cold, with fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, head and muscle aches, extreme tiredness and hair loss.
The secondary stage will also subside without treatment, but the infection will linger and progress to the latent phase where there are no visible symptoms.
Most people will not develop tertiary syphilis, a fatal form that affects several organ systems which can appear 10 to 30 years after a person is infected.
Malrey-Horne said it is especially important for people who are pregnant to get tested for syphilis, as the infection can spread to unborn babies. Pregnant women who test positive for syphilis at the health district are immediately connected with a health care provider, she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report warning that cases of newborn syphilis are rapidly on the rise.
“It’s really important for women who may be pregnant or become pregnancy because congenital syphilis has some really bad effects on babies,” she said.
Congenital syphilis may cause stillbirth or infant death shortly after birth. If babies who are born alive with syphilis are not treated immediately they may have seizures or developmental delays or eventually die.
Congenital syphilis cases have been rising in Texas for several years, with 52 recorded in 2015 and 680 in 2021, according to the CDC database.
Malrey-Horne suggests that anyone who is sexually active should get tested at least once a year, even if they do not notice symptoms.
“The number one way to prevent the spread of syphilis is if you are abstaining from sex,” she said.
The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District provides testing for a nominal fee, possibly at no cost based on income, with no appointment necessary, Malrey-Horne said.
The staff at the health district’s Sexually Transmitted Infection Clinic is typically able to see clients within 20 to 30 minutes for a rapid test. If someone tests positive they will take a blood test and have the sample sent to a lab for confirmation, she said.
The health district also has loads of free condoms for men and women, which can decrease the risk of transmitting diseases for people with multiple partners, Malrey-Horne said. Be empowered to ask to use protection, and have open and honest conversations with partners about their sexual health history, she said.
