Epidemiology of syphilis

The epidemiology of syphilis describes how often this sexually transmitted bacterial infection occurs and in whom. Syphilis is believed to have infected 12 million people in 1999, with more than 90 percent of cases in the developing world, and it affects between 700,000 and 1.6 million pregnancies a year, causing miscarriages, stillbirths and congenital syphilis. In Sub-Saharan Africa it contributes to about 20 percent of perinatal deaths. Rates in the developed world fell until the 1980s and 1990s, then rose again after 2000 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Europe, mainly among men who have sex with men. Syphilis raises the risk of HIV transmission two to five times, and untreated it carries a mortality of 8 to 17 percent. This entry is a population profile and is not medical advice.