Campaign to Eliminate Syphylis gets mixed results. (FYI).

In 2000, the year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiated the National Plan to Eliminate Syphilis in the United States, the rate of primary and secondary syphilis dropped to a record low of 2.1 cases per 100,000 persons; the next year, however, it rose, for the first time since 1990, to 2.2 per 100,000). (1) (The CDC's plan sets a target of no more than 0.4 cases per 100,000 by 2005.) Between 2000 and 2001, the rate &dined by 18% among women but increased by 15% among men; for the later year, men's rate was more than twice that of women (3.0 vs. 1.4 per 100,000). While the rate among non-Hispanic blacks declined by 10% from 2000 to 2001, rates went up for all other racial and ethnic groups examined; all of the increases were driven by increased rates among men. The South continues to have the highest regional syphilis rate, but the rate there has declined, whereas it has risen in the West and the Northeast. Some 80% of U.S. counties reported no cases of syphilis in 2001; an objective of the national plan is for 90% of counties to be syphilis-free by 2005. According to the CDC, the data suggest that the increased syphilis rates among men are attributable to increased rates among men who have sex with men.

(1.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Primary and secondary syphilis-United States, 2000-2001, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2002, 51(43.971-973.