2023-07-31 05:05:59
The spread of sexually transmitted diseases exceeds its pre-pandemic level in Quebec, warns Public Health. Two babies were stillborn because of their mother’s syphilis last year, an unprecedented situation.
Twelve other infants were born infected with the disease in 2022, a record since Quebec has kept count of congenital syphilis (transmitted in the uterus).
“It’s a real concern,” said Dr.r Luc Boileau, national director of public health, in a telephone interview. “Are we worried? Yes. And that’s what we’re doing. »
He was talking to The Press in the wake of the publication, by the Ministry of Health, of an information bulletin intended for the medical community which describes a “worrying” increase in the presence of syphilis in Quebec.
“Syphilis was a disease that we thought, twenty years ago, to be able to eliminate from the Quebec portrait and even more widely, he continued. She made a marked comeback over time. It is concentrated in men, but there, we see it extending to women of childbearing age. »
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that can lead – following several years – to serious damage to the heart or brain. The disease can be transmitted from a mother to her child if proper medical treatment is not followed.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The National Director of Public Health, Dr.r Luc Boileau
Quebec has welcomed populations from more vulnerable places, where screening is less systematic. As a society, we have the means to deal with this and to act in prevention.
The Dr Luc Boileau, national director of public health
“Unfortunately, when they reach the end of pregnancy with syphilis, it is already too late because the treatment window is at the beginning of pregnancy,” added Riyas Fadel, director of prevention of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections. (ITSS) to Public Health.
Prostitution, drug use and sex with anonymous partners are other risk factors, according to a call for vigilance released by the Dr Boileau and his team. Objective: that doctors who see pregnant women passing through can quickly detect those with syphilis and intervene quickly.
“Even more” than before the pandemic
While perhaps most worrisome, the increase in congenital syphilis cases is not the only one on the Public Health radar screen.
Overall, in terms of ITSS, “we are picking up where we were in terms of progress in 2015-2019, but even more,” explained the Dr Boileau.
“In 2022, 1,203 cases of infectious syphilis were reported in Quebec, compared to an annual average of 966 for the period 2015-2019”, specifies the information bulletin from the Ministry of Health. “While cases of infectious syphilis were previously concentrated in the Montreal region, they are now spreading to most regions of Quebec. »
Same portrait on the side of gonorrhea. In 2022, 8,117 cases were reported in Quebec, “compared to an annual average of 5,944 cases for the period 2015-2019”, according to the Ministry.
The fight once morest this disease is complicated by the resistance of the bacteria to antibiotics, resistance which “continues to progress in a worrying way”.
Lymphogranulomatosis venereum (LGV), a disease that was extremely rare before 2013 (less than 10 cases per year), caused 144 patients in 2022. It is mainly present in men who have sex with other men. “A significant increase in the incidence is recorded in three regions, namely Chaudière-Appalaches, Lanaudière and Outaouais”, indicates the bulletin.
Improved screening
According to the Dr Luc Boileau, however, we must not lose sight of the fact that Quebec is making more and more efforts to detect these diseases in order to treat them as quickly as possible.
“We have improved our screening systems,” he said. We are seeing more cases, but that may be because we are better able to detect them. »
Hope on the board, all the same: monkeypox, which put Public Health on alert at this time last year, is virtually no longer detected in Montreal, yet “the North American epicenter” of the disease. “We managed to counter this outbreak in a spectacular way, said the Dr Boileau. This year, we only show very rare cases. Even that I would tell you that we don’t have any. We are quite happy with that. »
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