First 10EM - By Justin Morgenstern - May 8, 2023
Syphilis is on the rise. Across North America, we are seeing syphilis rates unheard of since we abandoned the lambskin condom. (OK, I have no idea if that is factually accurate, but I always imagined syphilis and lambskin going hand in hand.) In Canada, there were 96 cases of congenital syphilis in 2021, as compared to 7 in 2017, a 1271% increase! (CCDR 2022) Numbers are similar in the United States, with 2677 cases of congenital syphilis reported in 2021 as compared to 332 in 2012. (Dyer 2022) Among adults in Canada, there were 11,268 cases of syphilis diagnosed in 2021, and there are definitely more cases than diagnoses. (CCDR 2022) Although I am sure there are some emergency departments with significant expertise in the topic, this is not a diagnosis I have seen regularly in my career, and so I figured it was time for a brief review.