San Diego health officials are scrambling to stop a countywide outbreak of syphilis. Reports of the infection are up more than 11-hundred percent since 2000. KPBS reporter Andrew Phelps has details.
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to long-term brain damage or death if untreated. It's spreading faster in San Diego than any other large county in California.
Terry Cunningham of the county health department says five investigators are assigned to interview syphilis patients — and then track down every one of their sex partners. It can be difficult work.
Cunningham: A lot of people have a lot of partners and some of those partners are totally anonymous to them. They've met on the Internet. They've met in situations where people don't really exchange names.
Cunningham says the majority of new cases are the results of sex between men. He says all patients are treated anonymously and their cases kept confidential.
Andrew Phelps, KPBS News.
