Syphilis and China--A Growing Chancre

Syphilis rates in China have skyrocketed over the past 20 years. China's one-child policy combined with the Chinese preference for boy babies, has resulted in a shortage of women for young men to marry. So they go to prostitutes, who often have syphilis--and sometimes HIV.

...Cohen says China’s one-child policy has left fewer women for men to marry, so he says they are visiting prostitutes and becoming infected with syphilis.

Cohen notes the disease, which can cause devastating heart and neurological complications, is mild at first.

“Syphilis is kind of a masquerading problem; you might have an acute problem that’s turning into a chronic problem but you don’t know it as it’s turning into a chronic problem,” he said. “So, you might not seek health care. If you did seek health care, you might not go with the appropriate health care. You might just go with something cheaper.”

Studies have showed that people who are infected with the virus that causes AIDS also frequently have syphilis. Experts say co-infection is the result of exposure to known HIV risk factors, including unprotected sex. Syphilis sores also provide a gateway for HIV.

Source.

STDs were considered to have been abolished by the Communists in China, but more likely they were largely papered over by party policy-politically correct censorship. By 2000, openness in China allowed more windows for western trained researchers. It was clear by then that STDs were quickly getting out of control.

China is really two countries--one urban, educated, and sophisticated--the other rural and primitive. The chinese people are generally educated, but communist disruption of traditional values have left hundreds of millions of chinese lost. The control of the central government over the periphery is weakening, and the lack of a social safety net, poor medical care and disorganisation in the public health apparatus is having an adverse social effect on the relationship of the people with their government.