Surveillance of syphilis incidence in Zhoushan islands,Zhejiang province,2004-2007

Objective To analyze the results of the surveillance of syphilis incidence in Zhoushan islands,Zhejiang province.Methods Surveillance data were analyzed by descriptive epidemiology.Results A total of 3818 syphilis cases were reported accumulatively in Zhoushan islands from 2004 to 2007,of these cases,primary syphilis accounted for 30.17%,secondary syphilis accounted for 22.86%,tertiary syphilis accounted for 0.37%,congenital syphilis accounted for 4.92% and latent syphilis accounted for 41.67%.The reported annual average incidence rate of syphilis was 98.62/lakh with annual average increase of 19.84%,but the annual average increase for latent syphilis only was 47.65%.More cases occurred in women than in men with the sex ratio of 1∶0.87.Most cases occurred in the people of 20-29,30-39 and 40-49 age groups(75.72%),Most male cases occurred in 30-39 age group(28.05%),while most female cases occurred in 20-29 age group(34.48%).For early syphilis(primary and secondary syphilis) and latent syphilis,the incidence of female cases peaked in the age group which was10 years lower than male,and the difference for latent syphilis only was about 20 years.As for population distribution,the cases in home servants and jobless people accounted for the highest percentage(41.27%),followed by fishermen(14.60%),but the latent syphilis cases in fishermen accounted for 22.12%,which posed potential risk for the spread of syphilis.ConclusionThe syphilis epidemic has become a serious public health problem,which should be taken to stop the serious syphilis epidemic.