SYPHILIS ELIMINATION 2002 TALKING POINTS

Guide to Advocating for STD Policy Issues

  • The President's budget request for syphilis elimination is $14.9 million; if this figure is reduced, then syphilis elimination cannot and will not be achieved and CDC will be forced to abandon the National Plan to Eliminate Syphilis.

  • The syphilis epidemic is cyclical; therefore syphilis elimination is a time sensitive effort and needs to be done when rates are low. The current window is closing and our next chance to eliminate syphilis will not be for another ten years. Resources are needed now. Otherwise, next year we will be talking about syphilis control, not syphilis elimination.

  • Syphilis elimination is achievable only when rates are low.

  • Although rates are low overall, we are seeing an increase in syphilis outbreaks in a few areas of the country. Without adequate resources,
    we cannot contain these outbreaks and we can expect a significant
    increase in 2001.

Why Syphilis Elimination is Important

Syphilis elimination would result in gains in at least four critical areas:

Racial Health Disparities:
syphilis is one of the most glaring racial gaps in the US. In 2000 the Black/White ratio was 13:1.

Infant Health:
the US had 529 cases of congenital syphilis in 2000 that could have been averted.

HIV Prevention:
having syphilis increases that person's risk of contracting HIV from twofold
to fivefold.

Capacity to address emerging infections:
in the US -- the only industrialized nation to have a recurring syphilis epidemic --
the persistence of syphilis is a "public health diagnostic", a marker that signals
the breakdown of capacity within states and cities to do basic infection control
in communities.