日本性感染症学会誌 Journal of Japanese Society for Sexually Transmitted Infections

In response to the increase in syphilis cases in Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) has strengthened syphilis surveillance and started emergency control measures for syphilis since 2018. According to the analysis of additional information on syphilis cases, there were few foreign nationals, and their home address was mainly Tokyo. The history of HIV infection in male homosexual contacts, access to sexual services in male heterosexual contacts, and provision of sexual services by females for heterosexual contacts were dominant. Homosexual contacts in men had a history of HIV infection incidences, which were 33 times more than no homosexual contacts in men. Likewise, heterosexual contacts in men had access to sexual services by eight-fold compared with no heterosexual contacts in men. Since April 2018, the TMG has expanded their testing services. The public awareness of syphilis was strengthened through a comprehensive website concerning sexually transmitted infections, i.e., the “Tokyo Metropolitan Sexually Transmitted Infection Navigation”, which was launched in November 2018. In the latter half of fiscal 2018, six training sessions for doctors were held in various locations in Tokyo to improve their diagnostic ability. The TMG will concentrate on these measures until fiscal 2020. Carefully monitoring the trend of syphilis cases, performing effective interventions focused on the risk group, and making efforts to control the outbreak are necessary.