Toronto--Last January Thane Burnett in the Toronto Sun (Jan. 11, 2004) reported that sexual diseases are bounding back. While we were learning to fight new diseases such as SARS, others which were thought to have been brought under control have returned with a vengeance. Burnett wrote that between 1997 and 2001 gonorrhea cases in Canada rose by 45%. Vancouver has the world's largest outbreak of syphilis. Sex education in New Brunswick is under attack because of a high rate of chlamydia and an increase in mortality rates for cervical cancer.
The Toronto Star also reported that syphilis rates soared in 2003, particularly among men who have sex with men. More than a third of the people newly infected with the disease are co-infected with HIV, making blood tests to detect syphilis harder to read and allowing the disease to spread rapidly (Star, Feb. 23).
On September 1, 2004, Betsy Powell, crime reporter for the Star, stated that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases in Toronto has jumped over the past five years, with HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia increasing by about 50 per cent. People talk about "condom fatigue" and people are tired of warnings, said Dr. Rita Shahin, acting director of communicable disease control at Toronto Public Health. She added, "It's a hard behaviour to sustain."
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