Overview

• The number of infectious syphilis and gonorrhea cases have increased dramatically in Alberta since 2014.
• Gonorrhea cases have more than doubled since 2014: nearly 5,000 cases in 2020 versus 1,900 cases in 2014.
• Over 2,500 infectious syphilis cases have been reported in 2020 compared to 160 cases in 2014.
• Since 2014, there have been over 170 cases of congenital syphilis, resulting in more than 35 still births.

Key Messages

Talk

Encourage discussion about STI/HIV screening with all sexually active persons during routine office visits and consider offering STI/HIV testing to all patients as routine care.

• How to discuss sexual health, substance use and STBBIs.

Test

Who should be tested?

• Refer to the AHS deskside reference Infectious Syphilis Management Tool

Resources

• Find an STI / Sexual Health Clinic
• Information on Syphilis Testing in Alberta (Public Health Laboratory)
• Interpretation of Syphilis Serology (Public Health Laboratory)
• Public Health Notifiable Disease Management Guidelines: Syphilis

Treat

All cases of syphilis should be managed in consultation with STI Centralized Services.

• Provide treatment
  • Alberta Treatment Guidelines
• To access Bicillin® contact STI Centralized Services
  • Penicillin G Benzathine (Bicillin L-A) Injections
• Report and discuss partner notification from the last 3 months
  • Notification of STI form - Please Note: To avoid errors, the following Government of Alberta forms must be downloaded to your computer and opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader instead of being viewed via the web browser. Right click on the URL and click "Save Link As" to save the file to your desktop.

Information for Albertans