As most of us working in the STD Prevention field know, syphilis has been steadily increasing each year in the US for almost 20 years now. What’s most alarming is CDC announced this year that cases of primary and secondary syphilis have increased almost 73% since 2013. Additionally, all stages of syphilis (primary, secondary, early latent, late latent, and congenital) have reached the highest recorded levels since 1993¹.

In order to combat the ongoing syphilis epidemic here in the US, Diagnostics Direct donated 2,000 Syphilis Health Check^TM tests to NCSD this fall. Syphilis Health Check^TM are CLIA waived tests that detect Treponema pallidum antibodies in human whole blood, serum or plasma and take ten minutes to process.

NCSD has been managing the donation since October and we have awarded 800 total tests to twelve different agencies so far! The majority of these agencies are located in the Midwest and West as you can see below.

• Allies Linked for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS – Boise, ID
• Howard Brown Health – Chicago, IL
• Whatcom County Health Department – Bellingham, WA
• Douglas County Health Department – Omaha, NE
• Kansas City Missouri Health Department STD Clinic – Kansas City, MO
• Franklin County Health Department – Frankfort, KY
• Oklahoma State Department of Health – Oklahoma City, OK
• Spokane Regional Health District – Spokane, WA
• Terros Health – Phoenix, AZ
• Pima County Health Department – Tucson, AZ
• Apache County Public Health – Springerville, AZ
• Stanislaus County Health Services Agency – Modesto, CA

We still have 1,200 tests left to donate! If you would like to learn more about the Syphilis Health Check^TM tests or if you are interested in applying for a donation for your agency, please follow this link to our website.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2017. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2018.