Kalamazoo health officials warn of increase in number of syphilis infections

The prevalence of syphilis among residents of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, is on the rise, and health officials say they are unsure of what has caused this spike, according to a recent article published by Michigan Live.

The newspaper reported that there has been a 700 percent increase in the number of syphilis reports in the area since 2001. However, this trend has also been identified in several other Michigan counties, including Wayne, Oakland, Genesee, Ingham, Saginaw and Kent.

"Our chlamydia rates and gonorrhea rates are high in this county, so obviously some sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are going around. But I can't tell you for sure that there's any one reason [for the rise in syphilis]," Linda Vail Buzas, director of the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department, told the news provider.

Although syphilis can be eliminated with the use of antibiotics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that it is important to seek proper diagnosis through STD testing, since untreated early syphilis in pregnant women results in perinatal death in up to 40 percent of cases and, when acquired during the four years before pregnancy, causes fetal infections in about 80 percent of these instances.