NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

Cases of syphilis in NWT have dropped dramatically over the past year, but territorial health officials are still combating a slew of other sexually transmitted infections for which NWT youth are among the most at-risk in the country.

Dr. Kami Kandola, chief medical health officer for NWT, says the territory still has a lot of work to do stemming its high rates of sexually-transmitted infections. - NNSL file photo

There have been a total of 103 reported syphilis cases in the territory since an Alberta-based outbreak of syphilis hit NWT in May 2008, but only eight of those were diagnosed in 2010. NWT's syphilis rate has been declining since the outbreak began three years ago, while Alberta's has steadily climbed, according to a report released in December by Alberta's chief medical health officer.

Dr. Kami Kandola, chief medical health officer for NWT, said she was surprised by the report given that the number of syphilis cases in NWT generally follows from the prevalence of the bacterial infection in Alberta.

"Alberta does play a role. Their numbers have continued to increase, but ours have come down, partly because we're such a small population and we have an extremely dedicated nursing force who will go out and treat those cases," Kandola said. "I think that's what's helped us bring down our outbreak."

At the beginning of the outbreak three years ago, the NWT Department of Health and Social Services began an aggressive "syphilis alert" campaign, putting up posters in health centres, schools and on buses urging people to get tested for the disease, symptoms of which include painless sores on genitals and rashes on hands and feet. Health officials also screened more heavily for the disease in prisons and three times during pregnancy for expectant mothers. While syphilis is easily treatable with antibiotics, it can be fatal or cause developmental problems when passed from a mother to baby in the womb. Two NWT newborns have been infected with syphilis since 2008, but the highest rates of infection have occurred in 15- to 29-year-olds, and that's the demographic the department is now targeting with its sexual health campaign. The department has hired a sexual health co-ordinator to push a safe sex message on visits to schools and communities across the territory. The campaign has largely moved online, focusing on social marketing strategies, including the recently launched website RespectYourself.ca, and will include a comic book to be released later this year.

"It's about changing behavioural patterns, especially in the youth," Kandola said.

"As long as we have high rates of sexual activity and high rates of sexually-transmitted infections, we'll still always be at risk for syphilis, even if our numbers are now low."

NWT has the highest rate of gonorrhea and the second highest rate of chlamydia in Canada.

In 2010, there were 867 cases of chlamydia and 215 cases of gonorrhea reported in NWT.

"We may pat ourselves on the back for how we've handled the syphilis outbreak but we're still struggling with the chlamydia and gonorrhea," Kandola said.

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