Shortage of antibiotics to treat syphilis hits as infection rate soars among homosexual men

May 24, 2016 by Jill

by Steve Weatherbe, LifeSite:

A sharp increase in the incidence of syphilis in the U.S. and Canada has led health authorities in both countries to warn of a shortage of the antibiotic Bicillin and the Canadian Public Health Authority to call for it to be reserved for pregnant women.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based in Atlanta issued their advisory on April 29, reporting the shortage nation-wide of Bicillin or Benzathine penicillin G, which it said was not only “the recommended treatment for syphilis” but “the only treatment option for pregnant women infected with or exposed to syphilis.”

Both American and Canadian health authorities blame the rise in STD infection on the increase in anonymous sex facilitated by social media.

Its Canadian counterpart went further, recommending supplies be doled out first to pregnant women with syphilis, then to infected men who could not be relied upon to submit to less effective and more onerous treatment regimes, and third to pregnant women in recent contact with infected men.

“There is no satisfactory alternative to penicillin in pregnancy; strongly consider penicillin desensitization in patients reporting anaphylactic reactions to penicillin,” the Canadian advisory stated.

Ironically, 97 percent of people with syphilis are men, according to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and more than 90 percent are “men who have sex with men.” The rise in syphilis infections in Vancouver has led the authority to launch an ad campaign via buses, bulletin boards and dating sites urging men having sex with men to get checked for STDs every three months.

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