Syphilis among STD clinic patients in Prague in 2009.

The aim of the study was to evaluate clinical, epidemiological and demographic data of patients with syphilis hospitalized at the Department of Dermatovenereology of the General Teaching Hospital in 2009 and to identify the groups at high risk of sexually transmitted diseases. The results were compared with the previous surveys carried out between 1999 and 2005 and also with the data of the National Registry of Venereal Diseases for 2008. A total of 232 patients were hospitalized in 2009 (including 26 women admitted for compulsory retreatment in pregnancy). We noticed a 25% increase in the number of patients in comparison with the year 2008. Of the total number of patients, 206 were patients with newly diagnosed syphilis, of which 153 (74.3%) were men and 53 (25.7%) women. There was 22.3% of patients with primary and 31.6% with secondary syphilis. As in the previous years, heterosexual contact remained the most frequent route of syphilis transmission. However, the number of homosexual and bisexual men increased, amounting to 64.7% of all hospitalized men. Four men were HIV positive. The age distribution did not change; majority of the patients were aged between 30 and 40. The proportion of foreigners also remained unchanged (19.9%); they came mainly from the Slovak Republic (31.1%) and Ukraine (26.7%). The absolute number of reported syphilis cases has been increasing in the Czech Republic since 2006. From the epidemiologic point of view, the increasing incidence of early stages of the disease is alarming. Men prevail over women among the infected persons; the men having sex with men (MSM) has been increasing in the last three years.