WHO sounds the alarm: eight million syphilis infections per year

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is sounding the alarm about setbacks in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases.

Annual new infections with syphilis rose from around 7.1 million in 2020 to 8 million in 2022, the UN organization reported in Geneva on Tuesday. The largest increases were recorded on the American continent and in Africa. 230,000 people died from the bacterial disease in 2022.

“The rising incidence of syphilis is a cause for great concern,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. According to his organization’s report, a total of more than one million people are infected with syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia or trichomoniasis every day. These four sexually transmitted diseases are all curable.

According to the WHO, new HIV infections are also falling too slowly—1.3 million in 2022, only 200,000 fewer than in 2020. On the other hand, the WHO reported positive progress: around three-quarters of all people with HIV are being treated with antiretroviral drugs. According to the report, many countries have already developed health strategies to prevent the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mothers to their children.