Syphilis burden higher among men who have sex with men, study reveals

Men who have sex with men more at risk of syphilis. Image source: thebhutanesse

A new study has highlighted the unacceptably high global prevalence of syphilis among men who have sex with men.

The study titled, Prevalence of syphilis among men who have sex with men: A global systematic review and meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020, underscores the need to advance stalled progress toward eliminating syphilis as a public health threat by 2030.  

Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection is caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum. 

The study lead by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK and published in The Lancet Global Health presents the first global syphilis prevalence estimate among men who have sex with men. 

Findings from this global review show that men who have sex with men have a high burden of syphilis infection, with significant variation across countries and regions. 

The global pooled prevalence of syphilis among men who have sex with men was 7.5 percent during 2000-2020 (95 percent CI: 7.0-8.0), as compared to the most recent estimate of syphilis among men in the general population in 2016, 0.5 percent (95 percent UI: 0.4-0.6). 

The proportion of men who have sex with men with syphilis was highest in settings where HIV prevalence was greater than five percent and in low and middle-income countries. 

The sub-analysis showed that pooled prevalence estimates were higher between 2015-2020 compared to the prior five years in half of the global regions assessed and several countries are reporting a high and sustained increase in syphilis infection among men who have sex with men.

Globally, there were an estimated seven million new syphilis infections in 2020. 

The World Health Organisation noted that it has set ambitious targets to reduce the incidence of syphilis by 90 percent by 2030, but the global response has been slow. 

“While there have been modest reductions in congenital syphilis as a result of the scale-up of interventions in antenatal care, such as syphilis screening and treatment for pregnant women, there is an urgent need to galvanise momentum and better serve other priority populations disproportionally impacted by the disease. 

“Syphilis is preventable and curable, with cost-effective and, in certain contexts, cost-saving interventions. 

“Easy to use and inexpensive point-of-care tests include blood-based rapid tests that produce results in less than 20 minutes and products that test syphilis and HIV using a single platform. Treatment with injectable benzathine penicillin is simple to administer and inexpensive. 

“A major challenge is that populations at higher risk for syphilis, particularly in LMIC, are often not able to access services due to structural barriers, including criminalization, policy and legal barriers, discrimination and violence. 

“As recommended by WHO, governments should address these structural barriers as a priority,” it said.

According to the Director of WHO’s Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes, Dr. Meg Doherty this first review of global syphilis prevalence among men who have sex with men highlights the urgent need to improve access to syphilis testing, treatment and prevention services.

“Stakeholders must address structural barriers, like discrimination and violence; improve sexuality education, and expand access and delivery of syphilis testing and immediate treatment for all populations at higher risk of infection,” Doherty said. 

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Insurgency: Burkina to install 900 surveillance cameras

File: Burkina Faso map

Burkina Faso, battling a jihadist insurgency that has claimed more than 1,500 lives, is to install 900 video cameras in two cities under a Chinese-funded surveillance system.

The “Smart Burkina” system is being installed at 220 locations in the capital Ouagadougu and 80 locations in the second-largest city of Bobo-Dioulasso, Security Minister Maxime Kone said on Thursday in a ceremony to launch the project.

The scheme will give the security forces “the means to be able to detect crime areas and follow delinquents,” Prime Minister Christophe Dabires said.

“Smart Burkina” will cost around 52 billion CFA francs CFA ($94 million / 79 million euros).

Two Chinese firms, Huawei and China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation are in charge of carrying out the project.

“Once the project is finished, the Burkinabe side, as sole beneficiary, will have independent and autonomous management over all the data and all the installations,” the Chinese ambassador in Ouagadougou, Li Jian, said.

Landlocked Burkina Faso is struggling with a six-year-old jihadist campaign that has forced 1.5 million from their homes and inflicted crippling economic damage to one of the world’s poorest countries.

Ouagadougou has been hit three times since 2016, with a loss of nearly 60 dead.

On Saturday, several thousand people rallied in the country’s major cities to protest against insecurity.

(AFP)

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Oxford scientists begin HIV vaccine clinical trial

HIV Vaccine

Scientists at Oxford University, United Kingdom, have commenced a clinical trial for a novel HIV vaccine.

The trial known as HIV-CORE 0052 began on Monday.

The goal of the trial, according to Oxford, is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the HIVconsvX vaccine – a mosaic vaccine targeting a broad range of HIV-1 variants, making it potentially applicable for HIV strains in any geographical region.

For this clinical trial, 13 healthy adults aged between 18–65 who were considered not to be at high risk of infection received one dose of the vaccine which will be followed by a further booster dose at four weeks.

Speaking on the trial, Professor of Vaccine Immunology at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford and lead researcher for the trial, Tomáš Hankeof in a statement said, “An effective HIV vaccine has been elusive for 40 years.

“This trial is the first in a series of evaluations of this novel vaccine strategy in both HIV-negative individuals for prevention and in people living with HIV for a cure.”

Describing how this vaccine would work on Oxford University’s official website, the researchers said “While most HIV vaccine candidates work by inducing antibodies generated by B-cells, HIVconsvX induces the immune system’s potent, pathogen obliterating T cells, targeting them to highly conserved and therefore vulnerable regions of HIV – an “Achilles’ heel” common to most HIV variants.”

This trial is part of the European Aids Vaccine Initiative (EAVI2020), an international collaborative research project funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 Health Programme for Research and Innovation.

The researchers said they hope to be able to report the results of the HIV-CORE 0052 trial by April 2022.

There are also plans to start similar trials in Europe, Africa and the US, the site reports.

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COVID-19: Worst yet to come for Africa, says WHO

Africa has just lived through its most devastating week of the pandemic, but the worst is yet to come as the third wave gathers pace on the continent, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

“Africa has just marked the continent’s most dire pandemic week ever. But the worst is yet to come as the fast-moving third wave continues to gain speed and new ground,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa.

Cases are doubling every 18 days, compared with every 21 days only a week ago, she said during a virtual press conference, adding that “the end to this precipitous rise is still weeks away.”

Coronavirus cases have been rising in Africa since the start of the third wave on the continent on May 3. During the week ending July 4, more than 251,000 new Covid-19 cases were recorded on the continent,  a 20% increase over the previous week and a 12% jump from the previous January peak.

Sixteen African countries are now seeing a resurgence of the virus, with the more contagious Delta strain detected in 10 of them.

South Africa is the worst-hit country in Africa, with new daily infections hitting record highs of 26,000 cases over the weekend, fuelled by the Delta variant.

Vaccination rates remain sluggish, with only 16 million people, 2% of the African population, fully vaccinated.

But Moeti said there was some room for optimism because vaccine deliveries were picking up after grinding to a near halt in May and early June.

“Our appeals for ‘we first and not me first’ are finally turning talk into action. But the deliveries can’t come soon enough because the third wave looms large across the continent,” she said.

Africa has so far received 66 million doses and has administered 50 million of them.

Moeti urged governments to expand vaccination sites and take other measures to take advantage of the vaccine deliveries when they come.

According to latest figures, Africa has officially registered  5,730,638 cases and 147,125 deaths from Covid-19.

AFP

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