Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that was nearly eliminated from China 50 years ago, is now the most commonly reported communicable disease in Shanghai, China's largest city.
No other country has seen such a precipitous increase in reported syphilis cases in the penicillin era. In 2008, an average of more than 1 baby per hour was born with congenital syphilis in China, for a total of 9480 cases; the rate had increased by a factor of 12 during the previous 5 years.
A disease with social roots, syphilis has become a major scourge lurking in the shadows of a country that has rapidly ascended to the status of a global economic powerhouse.
The article goes on to speculate as to the cause: "After China's economy became increasingly market-based in the 1980s, the growing numbers of Chinese businessmen with money and young women without money translated into expanded demand and supply for the country's commercial sex industry."
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