NWT campaign to curb syphilis continues as cases surge | CBC News

The NWT chief public health officer is asking people to take extra care to prevent the spread of syphilis as children are born with the congenital form of the disease.

Two babies have been born with congenital syphilis since July, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola in an interview with CBC, bringing the total to four since the syphilis outbreak was announced in 2019.

Congenital syphilis is when a mother passes the infection on to her baby during pregnancy. If left untreated, the child can become blind, deaf or have bone deformities.

“We’ve had at least nine women test positive for syphilis in their pregnancy and we’re also now seeing syphilis reaching the street communities and that makes it really difficult to identify cases and contacts,” Kandola said.

Kandola is urging people to get tested at least three times during their pregnancy.

“The problem with syphilis is that you can treat it and the treatment is effective, but if we don’t treat the partner or the contacts, people can get infected again and then start all over again.”

Working with vulnerable populations

The NWT Health Department is working on solutions as syphilis spreads throughout the area and in populations who may not have access to the health system or who do not trust hospitals or clinics.

These solutions include rapid syphilis tests that can be taken to the streets and free condom stations.

The rapid tests were announced in July and hit the streets in Yellowknife last month. Results of the test will be announced in 15 minutes and 20 have been completed to date, Kandola said, noting that phase two of the rollout will bring rapid testing to Hay River, Whatì, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Fort Providence and Fort Resolution.

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services also announced that 200 free condom dispensers would be installed in public places across the territory. The goal is to have all donors in place by the holidays, Kandola said.

“The challenge identified was that access to condoms was limited, inconsistently available, or non-existent in some communities,” Kandola said.

While condoms aren’t 100 percent protective against syphilis, Kandola said, when used consistently, they reduce the risk.

Side effects can be fatal if left untreated

The chronic and contagious disease is preventable and treatable, but the area has seen more than 300 cases in the past four years.

One theory for the rise in cases is that the numbers are catching up after a lack of testing during COVID-19 restrictions.

“It’s almost like a small, local fire – as cases increase, it becomes more and more difficult to bring cases back down because more people are infected and more people are unreported [who] could be infected,” Kandola said, noting that the infection can be transmitted for up to a year.

There are multiple stages of infection, Kandola explained. In the first stage, between 10 days and three months, a painless sore may develop; In the second phase, two to eight weeks, people could develop a rash or have flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches and sore throat.

There’s also a latent stage, when people may have no symptoms, and a tertiary stage, when people — if left untreated for a year or more — can develop blindness or mental disorders, or experience damage to the brain, heart, eyes, and nervous system and even risk death.

Testing is key, Kandola said.

“The main thing is that not everyone can tell that they have symptoms of syphilis. They may think it’s something else, or they may not see this painless sore.”