According to the most recent NHS Foundation Trust Gateshead figures from 2024, 22.1 people per 100,000 in Gateshead have contracted syphilis. This is in comparison to the regional average of 19.9 per 100,000 and the England average of 16.5.
A health report presented to Gateshead Council’s health and wellbeing committee states: “Post lockdown, Syphilis has made a worrying resurgence, if left untreated, can cause serious and potentially life-threatening problems, including heart, brain and nerve problems. Syphilis rates in the North East remain higher than the England average and are at the highest recorded levels since 1948.”
Symptoms
Symptoms of syphilis include ulcers or warty growths on the genitals, sores on or in the lips or hands. Other markers include swollen glands, patchy hair loss and rashes on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet that can spread throughout the body.
NHS guidance states it can take up to three weeks for symptoms to appear once you are infected and urges those concerned to attend a GP surgery or sexual health clinic.
Treatment
Gateshead’s Integrated Sexual Health Service, located in Trinity Square in central Gateshead, is now able to offer “doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis” or ‘Doxy PEP’ medication to tackle the spread. The medication is offered to those at risk of catching the illness and taken after sex.
The council’s health report concludes: “Medical advancements such as this are particularly exciting given the upward trend in these diseases post lockdown as a means of treatment and prevention.”
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