Cargando…

Syphilis in China: the great comeback

China is currently witnessing a major resurgence of syphilis from the elimination of the disease in the 1960s to 5.3 per 100,000 people incidence in 2000–2005. The reasons for the elimination and subsequent resurgence of syphilis in China lie at the heart of much public health debate, highlighting b...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hesketh, T, Ye, XJ, Zhu, WX
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: CoAction Publishing 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3167587/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22460215
http://dx.doi.org/10.3134/ehtj.08.006
_version_ 1782211258154483712
author Hesketh, T
Ye, XJ
Zhu, WX
author_facet Hesketh, T
Ye, XJ
Zhu, WX
author_sort Hesketh, T
collection PubMed
description China is currently witnessing a major resurgence of syphilis from the elimination of the disease in the 1960s to 5.3 per 100,000 people incidence in 2000–2005. The reasons for the elimination and subsequent resurgence of syphilis in China lie at the heart of much public health debate, highlighting both the relationship between politics and public health, and the role of government in controlling disease. Were the Draconian measures to control syphilis during the early Mao years a price worth paying for the effective control? Is the recent resurgence of syphilis an inevitable consequence of economic development and greater freedom for the individual, which will ultimately lead to better health for the majority of the population? Could tougher control measures such as those of the early Mao years be re-introduced in the current social and economic climate in China? In this review, we briefly chart the history of the syphilis epidemic in China, its elimination in the 1960s, and its gradual resurgence in the past two decades. We explore the reasons for this resurgence, and we conclude with a discussion on the options for control.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3167587
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2008
publisher CoAction Publishing
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-31675872011-09-07 Syphilis in China: the great comeback Hesketh, T Ye, XJ Zhu, WX Emerg Health Threats J Review Articles China is currently witnessing a major resurgence of syphilis from the elimination of the disease in the 1960s to 5.3 per 100,000 people incidence in 2000–2005. The reasons for the elimination and subsequent resurgence of syphilis in China lie at the heart of much public health debate, highlighting both the relationship between politics and public health, and the role of government in controlling disease. Were the Draconian measures to control syphilis during the early Mao years a price worth paying for the effective control? Is the recent resurgence of syphilis an inevitable consequence of economic development and greater freedom for the individual, which will ultimately lead to better health for the majority of the population? Could tougher control measures such as those of the early Mao years be re-introduced in the current social and economic climate in China? In this review, we briefly chart the history of the syphilis epidemic in China, its elimination in the 1960s, and its gradual resurgence in the past two decades. We explore the reasons for this resurgence, and we conclude with a discussion on the options for control. CoAction Publishing 2008-06-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3167587/ /pubmed/22460215 http://dx.doi.org/10.3134/ehtj.08.006 Text en © 2008 T Hesketh et al.; licensee Emerging Health Threats Journal This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Articles
Hesketh, T
Ye, XJ
Zhu, WX
Syphilis in China: the great comeback
title Syphilis in China: the great comeback
title_full Syphilis in China: the great comeback
title_fullStr Syphilis in China: the great comeback
title_full_unstemmed Syphilis in China: the great comeback
title_short Syphilis in China: the great comeback
title_sort syphilis in china: the great comeback
topic Review Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3167587/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22460215
http://dx.doi.org/10.3134/ehtj.08.006
work_keys_str_mv AT hesketht syphilisinchinathegreatcomeback
AT yexj syphilisinchinathegreatcomeback
AT zhuwx syphilisinchinathegreatcomeback