[Epidemiological study of an epidemic outbreak of syphilis in Palmas de Gran Canaria]

In the last times there has been an increased incidence of syphilis especially among homosexual men. In our department we have diagnosed 11 cases of early syphilis in 6 months during 2006, thus confirming an epidemic outbreak.

We carried out an epidemiological survey of patients with early syphilis.

Syphilis was secondary in five cases and primary in six. All patients were men, 70 % homosexual with a mean age of 38.1 years. All patients had or have had other sexually transmitted diseases (STD), six were HIV positive. Ninety percent of the patients admitted having had promiscuous sexual contacts in the past year, and among these, 50 % never used protection, no protection was taken in cases of oral sex and only 25 % reported protection during anal sex.

Currently, there is excessive slackening of protection practices as a method of STD prophylaxis, which leads to an increased number of cases. We consider relevant to insist in the use of barrier methods during oral sex as it is an important source of infection.