The Ministry of Health plans to free the mainland of congenital syphilis in 10 years.
The disease was eliminated 50 years ago but has made a ferocious comeback over the past two decades, with infection rates increasing by an average of 50 per cent a year over the past 12 years.
Recognising that syphilis is a serious public health threat with clear links to increased risk of HIV transmission, health authorities have pledged to wipe out infant infections by 2020 and cut the increase in general syphilis infections to less than 5 per cent a year by 2015. They have been growing by more than 14 per cent a year for the past 10 years.
The plan announced yesterday calls for syphilis education campaigns in places where migrant workers stay, such as factories, markets and construction sites. Free condoms will be distributed, along with safe-sex education, in public places where groups at high risk of contracting HIV/Aids and syphilis, such as homosexual men, congregate.
The plan also suggests that the basic medical insurance system cover treatment for syphilis.
Syphilis can generally be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin. But if left untreated it can damage the heart, brain, eyes and bones - in some cases fatally. It was almost eradicated on the mainland in the 1950s with a sweeping programme of free antibiotic treatment and brothel closures. Former sex workers were routinely checked for syphilis and the disease was practically unknown after a decade of control.
But since the introduction of economic reforms in the late 1970s and a consequent sex industry boom catering to a growing number of men with disposable incomes, including migrant workers, syphilis has re-emerged, becoming a commonly reported communicable disease.