By Daphne Streider
Preventable and treatable. That’s how the city of Lubbock’s Public Health Department describes syphilis. Yet, city health officials say the disease may not be on people’s radar. And it probably should be.
In January of this year, Katherine Wells, the director of Public Health with the City of Lubbock Health Department, was quoted on everythinglubbock.com as saying her office is seeing a fourfold increase in the number of syphilis cases in Lubbock County.
“We will probably have about 550 cases for the county this year, or for 2022,” she’s quoted as saying, “and that’s compared to having 100 cases a year before.”
A news release from her office shows a huge spike in the number of cases in 2020, affecting nearly all age groups, ranging from 15 to 79 years old in Lubbock County.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says men who have sex with men make up the majority of cases, but infections among heterosexuals are on the rise. The Lubbock Health Department information shows 40% of those affected by syphilis are women.
Of course, syphilis is not the only sexually transmitted infection or STI out there. People may have heard of “raider rash” in relation to STIs and Texas Tech. According to thehub@ttu, a site maintained by the TTU College of Media and Communication, “The phrase is a slang term for STDs at Texas Tech University, according to Urban Dictionary, which also suggests that Tech is known for a high STD rate – one in four.”
The Hub’s post, from 2016, goes on to explain that Texas Tech’s population does not necessarily have an extraordinarily high STD rate, rather the Lubbock population overall does. Wells’ data appears to back that up.
Despite the dramatic rise of syphilis cases in recent years, chlamydia and gonorrhea remain the two most common STIs in the U.S. According to the CDC, nearly two-thirds of chlamydia cases were among individuals aged 15 to 24.
Each of the diseases, chlamydia and gonorrhea, are curable, but several STIs are not, with the most notorious of these being HIV and the resulting AIDS crisis of the 20th century. Luckily, there are now medications that can treat and prevent the spread of HIV, as well as those that lower the chances of contracting it.
With tools to prevent and treat STDs, why are diseases like syphilis still spreading? It may be due to an overall lack of sex education.
Rebecca Canon, director of Health and Wellness at SPC, says sex education is a key. That’s why, since 2018, Health and Wellness has booked a “Sex in the Dark” event on campus.
“Sex in the Dark aims to support a sex-positive campus culture,” Canon, says, “by providing medically accurate and student-friendly health information and promoting campus and community resources.”
“Sexperts,” as Canon calls them, who facilitate the event, can answer any questions students have, including those regarding sexually transmitted infections, sexual orientation, gender identity, consent, legality, and more.
When asked about what inspired Health and Wellness to start hosting Sex in the Dark, Canon cited the drastic increase in sexual assault cases since 2012 and said, “SPC H&W wanted to address the problem by communicating, educating, and through the provision of resources available.”
Dr. Rebekah L. Rollston, a resident affiliate at Harvard Medical School for Primary Care writes, “In addition to the sexual and reproductive health benefits of comprehensive sex education, it is a powerful tool for violence prevention.” She also writes that sex education can help students deal with issues including sexual violence, physical dating violence, bullying, and suicide. The Sex in the Dark event scheduled for this Fall semester was recently cancelled. Canon says she hopes to reschedule the event for the spring, but no dates have been released yet.
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