A free, publicly available testing programme for syphilis needs to be made available in South Auckland to help tackle the epidemic, an expert says.
Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall says she s aware frontline specialists are struggling to react to South Auckland s syphilis epidemic.
Photo: LAWRENCE SMITH / STUFF / LDR
Dr Massimo Giola is a member of the New Zealand Sexual Health Society s executive and a practising physician, and said many people were still being charged a consultation fee when tested for the disease by their GP. Particularly in areas like South Auckland, why don t we look at some form of subsidy? he said. We should be making the services as accessible as possible like we did with testing for Covid-19.
“We should be making the services as accessible as possible like we did with testing for Covid-19. “Personally I see this as a public health issue. If people do the right thing they shouldn’t have to pay for it.” Parliament’s health select committee has raised concerns about the growth of syphilis in south Auckland and the need for extra funding for primary and sexual health services to stop its spread. A report released in April as part of its annual review of the Counties Manukau District Health Board said 40 percent of syphilis cases in New Zealand were in the Counties Manukau area.
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A report from Parliament s health select committee says Counties Manukau accounts for 40 per cent of all syphilis cases in New Zealand.
Parliament’s health select committee has raised concerns about the growth of syphilis in south Auckland and the need for extra funding for primary and sexual health services to stop its spread. But at least one leading academic says there’s also a need for more up to date data and contact tracing to get on top of the disease. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection which can be treated and cured with antibiotics. But if it isn’t treated, over time it can affect the brain, spinal cord and other organs.
Parliament s health select committee has raised concerns about the growth of syphilis in South Auckland and the need for extra funding for primary and sexual health services to stop its spread.
A historical photo from the US of a person s tongue with spots caused by syphilis.
Photo: CDC/PUBLIC HEALTH IMAGE LIBRARY.
At least one leading academic says there s also a need for more up-to-date data and contact tracing to get on top of the disease.
Syphilis is a sexually-transmitted infection that can be treated and cured with antibiotics. If it isn t treated however, it can over time affect the brain, spinal cord and other organs.
”My daughter is 10 years old. I haven’t seen her for over 400 days. Which is 10 per cent of her life. ”You don’t want to give up because you know your family is going to be let in, but how much longer can you wait and how much does it take out of one to wait this long? We can do a year, but we can’t do another two years.” Their family sits at the nexus of both the border closure and a near-collapse of our skills-based immigration system. Not only were Dintchev’s husband and daughter stranded more than 11,000 kilometres away when the borders closed, but their residency application is also stuck in the largest backlog of applications in history with wait times now measured in years rather than months. There are 36,000 skilled migrant applications waiting to be processed.